What It's Like
by DetoxAngel
Summary: Nobody knows how little they know about Naruto until they find out the truth. ANGST. M to be safe. Genre may change in later chapters. No pairings as of yet.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Found this old thing collecting dust in my documents folder and decided, hey, why not?

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"I'd rather swallow shuriken than go out with you!"

Life actually could be worse for Naruto then it currently was, and with this knowledge the blonde demon container simply shook his head instead of conveying his hurt with a well-directed pout in his insulter's direction. Sakura could probably be meaner if she tried.

He wanted to apologize for asking, but that wouldn't go without explaining why he was apologizing in the first place, something it wouldn't help him in the long run to do. So Naruto mentally shrugged off her painfully negative response to his pleas for a date and turned his attention to Sasuke, hoping that if he bantered with the other long enough he would get angry enough to forget about being sad.

The Uchiha promptly told him to shut up and walked faster, ahead of him and ahead of their sensei, who looked at Naruto behind his shoulder with a somewhat disapproving glint in his eye.

"There would be a lot less frustration on the team if you just kept quite like Sakura and Sasuke, Naruto." He ignored the boy's involuntary wince turned back to his book to ignore him for the rest of the trip home.

Nobody saw him gritting his teeth as his steps behind them became more rigid. Nobody paid attention to his attempt to suppress a hostile growl. Nobody saw his eyes welling up with frustrated tears. They never did.

He would have just let the anger pass over him like it usually did, but all of a sudden before he could take another step, a searing pain exploded through his head and he staggered backward, caught off guard. The feeling seized his body in a shocked tension that caused his knees to lock and then go limp under him, bringing him down to the ground with him holding his head.

In front of him the sounds of howling reached Kakashi's ears and before the other two could react he had his weapons out and his sharingan exposed, wildly scanning the perimeter for the enemy. While he was looking around for an adversary that indeed was not there, Sasuke and Sakura were watching Naruto with stunned curiosity.

"Naruto, what's wrong?" Sakura cried but didn't make a move to run to him. The boy clutched his head and shook it violently, making the kunoichi too wary to approach her teammate. She couldn't tell if he was wounded or if she should have been looking for an outside source to his obvious pain, but she stood stock still and stared, too careful to look at Sasuke.

Kakashi about shoved her aside to see what the blonde Genin was crying about but fractionally hesitated when he saw that there were no tears streaming down the boy's face. "Naruto!"

Naruto didn't answer. He was too angry to answer. He was too sad to stop yelling. He was too lonely to open his eyes and see them. He was too afraid of them. He hated them.

And then, as suddenly as the burst of emotion began, it was gone and Naruto was on his feet and tearing through the woods before his team could blink.

He had to get away! They saw…they saw too much! He promised he would never allow anyone to see! What happened back there?! How had they gotten so close?! Paranoia clouded his judgment and instead of running back to Konoha he had taken off into the woods opposite of the village.

"Naruto!!" Kakashi yelled, and took off after him. Sakura had frozen and Sasuke had rushed after their sensei, wanting to know what was happening to Naruto. In reality, the chase hadn't lasted long but by the time they caught up to him, Naruto felt like he had run a marathon. Kakashi grabbed him and he twisted and kicked and screamed and finally tears gushed out of his eyes as the Jounin struggle to hold the wild boy still.

"Stop it! Stop Naruto, calm down!!" Sasuke watched the struggle go on for another minute before Kakashi lost his patience and knocked the blonde out. Naruto instantly went limp, but not before they saw blood running out of his ears and mouth.

Kakashi jumped to his feet and picked Naruto up. "Get Sakura and go home!"

"What?! What's wrong with him---

"Now Sasuke!!"

The Uchiha took off at the sound of his sensei's angry voice. But he wasn't going home. Sakura could stand there and whimper all day, but he was going to see what was up with the dobe, even if he had to defy Kakashi.

Kakashi stared ahead as he flew through the trees as fast as he could move. He'd wanted to smack Sasuke back there. The nerve of the brat to defy him! To ask him what was wrong as if he knew! How the fuck should he know?!

He had to get to Konoha as fast as he could. The sudden screaming from his usually hyperactive student had startled Kakashi and he didn't want Sasuke to see how perturbed he had been by it. By the time his feet touched Konoha soil he ran through the village with the haste of a madman. By that time Naruto was stirring in his arms. A loud wail ripped through his ears and the boy began to fight him again and everyone around him watched the crying child attempt to fend the copy-nin off.

"Naruto! Stop it!" He had thought the hit he had administered to Naruto's neck would buy him at least two hours but it had only been little over fifty minutes.

"NOOOOO!!!!!! DON'T!!!" The blonde screamed. Hearing this, Kakashi's grip slipped in surprise and Naruto shot off through the streets. He would have gotten quite far at the speed he was going had someone not grabbed him. Unfortunately, it was a ninja. Iruka Umino. Wild eyed, Naruto snatched a kunai from the Chuunin's holster pouch and began slashing away at himself.

"My god!!! Naruto!!" Iruka managed to wrestle the knife away from him and had gotten his hands cut up for the effort. "STOP IT!!! LET ME DIE!!!!!!" By then Naruto had already accomplished stabbing himself twice in the chest and stomach and cutting his face and throat. Still screaming, he tried to again grab a weapon from Iruka but the man caught hold of both his arms and held him face down in the dirt with bloody hands. Blood gushed from Naruto's wounds and Kakashi came to aid in holding him down until the commotion had brought the Hokage out who dropped to his knees beside them and pulled a needle out from his robes. Kakashi and Iruka watched the Hokage jam the needle into Naruto's temple and the distraught teen instantly went limp.

Amidst all of the yelling of encouragement for Naruto to finish himself off by the hateful villagers, Sasuke and Sakura stood horrified to stillness by the display. They watched as Kakashi put his arms around his head and buried it between his knees and his stomach, rocking back and forth. Iruka was suddenly shouting, trying to take Naruto from the Hokage after seeing the old man put some sort of drug into his ex-student. The Chuunin was put to rest with a sedative by a nearby ANBU as the Hokage ran in the direction of the tower with Naruto hanging lifelessly in his arms. An ANBU guard also shot Kakashi up and took both him and the Chuunin away, but in different directions.

Everything had happened so fast. On moment ago they were walking along, nothing out of the usual and the next all hell broke loose and Sakura was still reeling even as the love of her life shook her so hard it felt like her neck would break.

"Sakura! Are you alright?!" But the girl simple looked dazedly at the spot where her dimwitted teammate screamed and fought, begging to die, trying to die. What happened?

He would take her home and then go to the Hokage's office and demand to know what had happened. Running through the dirt paved streets with Sakura slung over his shoulder like a weightless doll, he grit his teeth and let his mind wonder. He knew Naruto was stupid but…

When had the dobe become _crazy_?

* * *

When Kakashi woke up, he fully expected the first person he saw to be Ibiki Morino. He wasn't disappointed to meet with the hardened eyes of Konoha's Interrogation Specialist.

"You're better off forgetting what you saw, better yet, don't even ask. I've given you a sedative and you're free to leave at any point you wish. Though you do realize its standard procedure to wipe away your memory. However, I for one would like to think that you're strong enough to move along the way you always have." All of this Ibiki said while prepping a syringe Kakashi was sure was meant for him.

"_W-What?!_" Kakashi whispered in disbelief. Forget? What the hell was Ibiki talking about? He was there. He was there the first time it had happened. How could he think what happened wouldn't bring back memories?

Ibiki advanced on him with the needle. "You're just a little shaken up because it reminds you of….look, just go home, and get some rest, the medicine I'm about to give you wil—

Kakashi smacked it away and was clear across the other side of the room and out the door before Ibiki could regain his composure. Not that the man was worried, or even surprised. Luckily had had already foreseen Kakashi's reaction.

When Kakashi wrenched open the door and bolted into the hallway, he ran straight into Sandaime. Stumbling back, he glared up at the old man.

"Where is he?! What happened to him and why did you drug him?!" Sarutobi calmly observed the crazed need for answers in his eye and turned away from him. "Kakashi. I realize that this incident reminds you of Sakumo's death, but do not attempt to trick anyone, including yourself into thinking that your perspective of Naruto has changed." He walked away from Kakashi, leaving him staring wide-eyed at the symbol of leadership. What did he mean by what he said? Change his perspective? From what?

Just as he was about to go and force some answers from the old bastard he was felled by a sharp pain in his neck. "You…son of bitch…" He mumbled before his consciousness was robbed by whatever drug Ibiki injected him with.

Ibiki smiled grimly and nodded at the ANBU on his left. The woman picked the copy-nin up and walked away with him.

_

* * *

_

_What the hell is this?_

Naruto wondered when he realized where he was. The hospital. Again. "Nooo…" he muttered weakly. Someone had…saved him. Why? Why would anyone save him? He didn't need saving, he needed to die. He needed, needed, to make it end. He had failed again. So miserably. That man, with the brown hair. Him again. Ruined it all. Bastard.

"What went wrong, Naruto?" A voice. A person. He wasn't alone. It couldn't possibly be worse.

"We tried everything. After all this time, you would relapse. What went wrong?" Old man's voice. Stupid geezer had helped. Fuck him, he would get no answers from him.

"You tricked me." Was all he allowed himself to say before he turned over on his side away from Sarutobi, noting with some pleasure that his torso and neck burned in pain with his movements.

"No, Naruto. I'm sorry if my intentions seem misplaced but I did not trick you. I thought we had gotten over this. I thought—

"I'll never get over this!" Naruto hissed. He wanted to get out of there but he would wait until the Hokage left the room. Hopefully the floor he was on was high enough to aid him in his endeavor to end his life. Yes, the room had nothing with which he could kill himself with, but as long as it had a window he already had two options.

Sandaime watched Naruto with all the worry of a grandfather and none of the pity. He had thought that the boy adjusted enough to be normal. To want to live a normal life. What an old fool he was to think that it would work. But what could have set it off this time? Hmm, he thought to himself. Perhaps he should have allowed Kakashi to speak with him. Now he would have to wait until the brat came to him of his own volition. There had to have been signs. Naruto trying to kill himself didn't just…happen. There had to have been something, a warning, a sign. Something. Kakashi must have seen something. If he had, Sandaime wanted to know. He would personally question Naruto's team and the other Genin he had come into prolonged contact with. Someone had to have seen something.

"How long have you felt the need to take your life?"

Naruto looked at him over his shoulder. "Forever." That wasn't it at all. He hadn't known a time where he didn't want to die. But….there was such a time. Because he had suddenly gone from stable, to being in a terrifying magnitude of pain. A familiar pain that he thought he would never feel again.

He thought for sure he had died. But no. They tricked him and he was alive. Reliving the pain of wanting to die but not being able to. And now he was stuck again. The same scenario applied. First the hospital, then the intimidating man with the scars, followed by an unknown amount of time in a room filled with smiling kids his age. A room filled with happiness, not the scorn and ridicule he was used to. It was then that he thought he had died and gone to heaven, the place people often spoke of but could never describe as anything but happy. In that place filled with children who actually wanted to play with him, men and women who wanted to be nice to him, he was for once in his entire life, happy. Until he woke up in a reality where a pink-haired girl was spitting hatred at him and another boy was ignoring his attempts at being playful. Where had all of the nice children and parents gone? Why had the man with them been so mean, telling him that his presence was not wanted? Then Naruto had come to the conclusion that he had been tricked. It was a cruel trick too, the kind where people laughed at the expression of realization and hurt on his face. But why? The old man had been the same old man that had brought him to that happy place. The place where he forgot about all of his pain. And now, to be snatched away from such happiness…

"Why?" He croaked. He hadn't realized how close he had been to crying. But he didn't care if the man saw his tears. He didn't care about anything. All he cared about was what he would do the moment the old man disappeared. Even with his spirit-lifting plans, he couldn't help but let his mind go back to the nagging question: How had those people gotten close enough to hurt him? He would have never allowed that. Never. So how?

"What did you do, old man?" He didn't really want to know, at least not from Sandaime. He wanted to figure it out himself, so he could chose the best way to put an end to the old man's game.

The Hokage grimaced. He didn't know what to say when he saw that Naruto was not going to give him a straight answer to any of his questions. So he simply walked out of the room and left him there to stare sightlessly at the wall.

"What did you do, old man?"

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TBC….Please review.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Guys, I'm being really nice with this update. If you don't tell me you want more, then I can't give you more. Well, I can, but I won't. Anyhow, this could be the last chapter, or the second of many more. We'll see in one full week.

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Just because there had been a rift in their lives, it didn't mean that they didn't have their ninja duties. Kakashi stood in front of them, prepared to ward off every question and inquiry they had about what had happened. He had already foiled Sakura's earlier attempts and was just waiting for Sasuke to break from curiosity. He knew the boy was brimming with angry questions and Kakashi was more than ready to thwart his efforts as well. Besides, it wasn't like he knew what to tell them.

"Are you alright, sensei?" Sakura asked in a tiny voice.

"Don't I look alright?" What were they talking about?

"You looked like you were in pain when they took Naruto away."

Kakashi eye flashed dangerously and he looked up at her with rage-induced slowness. "Didn't I tell the two of you to go home?" He growled. Sasuke took a step back and Sakura froze.

"Kakashi, we have every right to know---

"What makes you think that?"

Kakashi whipped around to see Iruka standing there with bandages on his hands and a slightly irate look on his face.

"Iruka-sensei."

Iruka started walking in a wide circle around them. "Come on Sasuke, let's hear it. What makes you think you have the right to know?"

The three of them looked equally confused. What was Iruka doing there? And why would he ask them something like that?

"We're his friends! I think that's more than enough reason for us to know!" Sakura shouted. She hadn't expected him to laugh.

Iruka had actually stopped walking and began laughing hysterically.

Kakashi had had enough.

Rushing the brown-haired ninja, he grabbed Iruka up by his vest and screamed into his face, "What the fuck is so fucking funny?!"

When the Chuunin didn't stop he pulled back to slam his fist into Iruka's face but froze when Iruka said,

"Define friends."

All of a sudden he wasn't laughing anymore. He pushed away Kakashi's hands.

"W-what? Sensei, why are you being like that?" Sakura looked like she didn't know who he was.

"What? Like what?"

Kakashi was done playing games. "Why are you here?" He hissed, ready to beat the smug asshole into the ground for mocking him.

"I want you to know what happened. Sarutobi-sama doesn't think you should know, but I'll let you in the hopes of rubbing your stupidity in your face. I know you think that what happened to Naruto is out of the ordinary, but it isn't."

"What are you saying?" Sasuke asked carefully. Was Iruka saying that trying to kill oneself was normal?

"Listen to me. I'm so high on sedatives right now, I can't find it in me to be angry enough to rip you to pieces Kakashi. I'll tell you what's happening. I'll start from the beginning. Interrupt me and I walk away, simple terms. I'm only telling you because once you know you won't be able to do anymore damage than you already have."

"Wh—

Iruka held his hand up. "No interruptions."

The three silently watched the expressionless Chuunin. They were too eager to know to cut him off again.

"When I first met Naruto in person, I already had him all mapped out. I thought of him like everybody else did. When I actually saw him, he was four. At least, that's what I found out afterwards. I thought he was much younger, he was a little over three feet tall, too short to be four. Anyway, I already hated him."

"One night, I was walking around the village, being as I didn't have any parents I was free to roam as late as I wanted. Passing an open alleyway, I saw a mob of people. Me being the little trouble maker I was wanted to see what was going on and maybe cause some mischief while I was at it. I didn't expect to see over twenty people kicking the shit out of a little toddler. There is nothing in this world that could have prepared me for that. I knew why they were hurting him, but….it was just so horrible. I already knew he was being mistreated, spanked, starved and such, but come to find that not only that, he was being raped, drugged, and beaten to within an inch of his life several times a week.

He paused.

"I see it in your eyes Sasuke, you think I'm lying, but the fact remains, when you go through all he went through, you can never be what anyone considers normal. Can any of you imagine what it's like to be that young and already have gone through more than most ninja go through in a lifetime? He was beyond fucked up from the age of four. As soon as he found out what death was he wanted it. He lost his mind when he was just a toddler. They tried everything. Drugs, jutsus, mind control, mind erasing techniques. After all that, they had given up hope and placed him in an internment camp for unstable children around his age. Who knew this would be the simplest way to get him to stop wanting to kill himself. As soon as he was marginally stabilized, they performed a Genjutsu called the 'Current Past' Justu. This jutsu was specifically designed for Naruto. It allowed him to progress with his life, but remain in the internment camp. I can't explain how that works, but from what I understand now, it was supposed to work until he was mentally capable of living independently. It obviously didn't work. A part of him knew it was an illusion, but he never expected to be able to fully face reality as it actually is. In other words, he snapped. For him it was like going back in time to when he was four, feeling the way he felt. Sandaime believes something triggered his relapse. But whatever it was, it was just the straw that broke the camel's back."

He smiled then.

"Would any of you by chance happen to know what that was?"

The last question was voiced in such a polite tone that Kakashi had actually become wary.

Sakura blanced. Sasuke looked confused. As far as he knew, nothing out of the ordinary had happened, it was the same thing everyday. Nothing was different. Naruto never showed any signs of being…crazy.

"Come on," Iruka urged in a nice voice, with a sly smile on his face that didn't belong.

"Someone here knows what happened. So out with it. Either you tell me, or you tell Ibiki Morino." Kakashi clenched his teeth. That old man would subject his students to the likes of Ibiki? They were just children!

"They don't know anything, Iruka. It's like you said, the jutsu just didn't work."

Iruka looked at him with the same calm smile. "I'm sure you'd like that to be the case, wouldn't you, Kakashi?" Then his face hardened. "I always thought that the way Sasuke and Sakura treated him was something he could handle. At the time it just seemed to be that they just weren't the right friends for him. I felt bad for putting them all on a team but I thought the sensei they got would straighten that out. Apparently, I was wrong. Instead you somehow mad it worse to the point where Naruto's desire to make all of the pain stop had overwhelmed the jutsu." The Chuunin turned suddenly, about to leave.

"Though I hate you enough to watch you die and laugh about it, Kakashi, something tells me that it wasn't you who delivered the final blow. Yes, Ibiki will interrogate these two whether you like it or not. Because the thing Sandaime is worried about the most is the Kyuubi. Be it your fault that Naruto releases him, you'll be the first to be sacrificed." With that, he poofed away.

Sakura sank to her knees and began to cry.

"Go home you two," Kakashi said gravely. "I need to go have a talk with Ibiki."

TBC….

I began this fic ages ago and now decided to post it. I hope I finish. I don't know where to go next. But, reviews fuel me as usual. However, lackthereof will cause me to uninspired and lazy and I'll just leave the fic alone. How will I know you guys want more if you don't tell me? As you all know, majority wins. And majority is more than five. Hehe. Okay I'll stop now, just make sure you all review.

Ja'ne.


	3. Chapter 3

What It's Like---Chapter Three

The gods must have really hated him.

No windows.

No mirrors.

No convenient line of string strong enough to support his dead weight from the light fixtures.

No glass or hard plastic around the lights.

Nothing.

Naruto scanned the room for the twenty-second time, trying to find anything he might have missed. Anything that could help him end his life. There was still nothing. The walls, ceiling, floor, and door were pillow soft, much to his dismay, and his hands were bound by soft, disgustingly fuzzy cuffs that didn't even allow him to scratch his ass if he needed to.

They intended to torture him.

He wanted to be angry but with no way to vent, he just sat on the floor, staring blankly at the powder blue and white walls. He wished he could hurt the old man for locking him away to rot in misery but he honestly wasn't sure that the bastard was ever going to return.

He wondered why he couldn't go back to the place with the nice people, and hadn't bothered to ask the old guy why. Somehow he knew that if something weren't wrong, he would have. But something was wrong. With him. He knew what it was. He had known for seven months but didn't understand why.

Why couldn't people see how human he was? Why couldn't people see that he was just like them? Why couldn't they tell that they were hurting him? Why couldn't they get that he just didn't want to live anymore?

"WHY AM I HERE?!" He screamed. Of course, no one answered him. The room was so empty, and he would have welcomed an echo, but there was none. No one had come to the room since he had been left there, and he didn't think anyone would.

'_So that's how it is? They're just going to leave me to die here.'_

They were going to leave him to suffer. He wanted to die, but he didn't want to suffer.

"Who does," he scoffed to himself.

He was born suffering, lived suffering, and would die suffering. Nobody cared what he wanted. Nobody cared that he wanted his death to be quick and gruesome. They wanted him to go insane before he starved, that was why they tied him up, drained his energy, and _still _padded the walls and put him in a room with nothing that could be used to harm him, so that he would lose his mind. They had left his feet loose, but what could he do with those, kick himself to death?

Nobody had been in to feed him, or give him a glass of water his parched throat so desperately needed. He doubted he would ever see another person again. He would never see the nice kids and adults again. He would never go back to that place. Those strange people he had been with, he would probably never see them again either.

But just who were they?

He had wracked his brain trying to think about how those people got near him and where he was, but couldn't figure it out. He felt like he should have known who they were, like he was supposed to be there, but the thought kept slipping away. They had called him names and insulted him. It hurt, but he didn't know why. People he didn't know insulted him all the time, but something about that time was different. It was almost like they were insulting him….on a personal level. Like they knew him.

And the silver-haired man with them…why had it hurt the most when that man shunned him? Who the hell was he anyway?

He knew that he could ask himself questions until he was blue in the face but nobody was coming to answer them. So he wasn't completely alone then. He had a little mystery to keep him company.

He wasn't completely lost however. Even he was smart enough to know that something was missing. He couldn't have just gone from that place with the nice people, to being with a different group of people he didn't know. Something happened in between, but he didn't know, or couldn't remember what.

That old man had done something to him! He was sure it had something to do with him. But what? Why couldn't he remember what happened? Why did it happen?

Naruto feel asleep on the cushioned floor and dreamed in clips and fog. He hadn't noticed at all that three people had come and gone while he slept. One of them was a doctor, the other the Hokage. And of course, Kakashi.

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Naruto was curled up in a ball when he walked in and it was obvious that he was cold. It was oddly drafty for a room with no windows. He had hoped the blonde would be awake and ready to talk. He stayed a while anyway, crouching next to the Genin to try and get a look at his face but Naruto had it buried in his arms and Kakashi couldn't see if he looked as different as he thought.

He talked to Ibiki, but to say that he left frustrated was being nice. The bastard had smiled at him for six whole minutes while he tried to explain why his team shouldn't be subjected to the mind probing of an evil man such as he. He eventually got pissed and left, wishing, but knowing that it would be less than wise, to hit the asshole.

He tried to find Iruka to see if the effects of whatever stimulant the medic-nins gave him had worn off and he could talk without that infernal smile on his face but hadn't been able to find the Chuunin anywhere. He finally went to Sandaime and demanded that he see Naruto. Much to his surprise, the old man granted his request and had him led to the basement of the hospital where they kept Konoha's less stable shinobi. Kakashi had been there before, briefly, but wondered why someone as young as Naruto would be contained there.

He had asked, but the medic-nin he was following mumbled something about 'demon scum' and he decided to leave it alone for the time being. It wouldn't do any good to make the man swallow his own teeth after all.

He was given strict orders not to touch his student. He couldn't talk to him either, but that was easier done when Naruto was asleep. One medic-nin explained to him that they were too afraid to go in while he was awake. Kakashi nearly scoffed at their stupidity but didn't so as not to lose his visiting privilege. As he stared solemnly at the boy, he wondered if Iruka had been by to see him first. The Chuunin knew an awful lot about Naruto and it made him a bit envious that he hadn't known as well.

The things that Iruka had told them all about Naruto had been horrific. Kakashi would have never imagined that the boy had been raped and drugged, especially not on various occasions. None of it made any sense. How could Naruto just lose his mind in the blink of an eye? How could he live in two separate realities, and not know it? Was the blonde really crazy? Or was it a side-effect of the jutsu Iruka spoke of? What made the jutsu go wrong? Was it just a single spark in Naruto's mind, or did something trigger it? Iruka had asked him if he knew what it was. How could he know? He didn't even know who his hyperactive student really was, how could he possibly know why he lost his mind?

Suddenly he thought of his sensei, and his entire body tensed. Minato would be beyond horrified at what his village had done to his only son, and what was worse, he'd hang Kakashi for letting them do it. But…was it really his own fault? Could it have been something he did? Could it have been what Iruka said? Was something he said or did the straw that broke the camel's back? He tried to think back on all he had said and did in relevance to the boy that day, but couldn't think of anything out of the ordinary that would have such a drastic effect.

_'The straw that broke the camel's back…'_

He squinted and wracked his brain to remember and when it finally popped into his head, he actually stumbled back two steps. A nauseating weight settled in his stomach as he ran by the memory again.

_He looked at Naruto behind his shoulder with a somewhat disapproving glint in his eye._

"_There would be a lot less frustration on the team if you just kept quite like Sakura and Sasuke, Naruto."_

The acidic feeling of oncoming sickness pervaded his chest and snuck its way to his throat and he swallowed it down dryly. It had been the last thing he said to Naruto. It wasn't a nice thing to say, and it must not have been a nice thing to hear. Kakashi put a hand over his masked mouth to stifle the gasp, even though nobody was there to hear it. It was his fault.

But would he tell the Hokage?

He had to. It was the only way they could…fix Naruto. If they knew the problem then maybe they could---

But what if they couldn't? What would Iruka do? He wasn't afraid of the Chuunin, but hate could bring a ninja a long way, even as far as destruction and he didn't want to be responsible for any of that, he just wanted….he just wanted Naruto to be back the way he was.

Wait, no, not the way he was, not like that. Not like…not like it had always been, even without his knowledge, because now he knew, and he would never want Naruto to go back to that. He just wanted Naruto to be as happy and as carefree as he always looked. Why did it have to turn out this way?

He stared down at the lightly shivering boy on the floor, then looked away in shame. He did this. He should be hanged. He deserved his sensei's hatred, which he swore he could feel from the Otherworld. He would go to the Hokage with his confession and hope for the very worst. Because he deserved it, and Naruto didn't.

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For once in his life, for all the years he had been living on his own, Sasuke didn't want to be alone. So he asked Sakura to come to his house and half expected the kunoichi to squeal like a rat and cling to him like polyethylene plastic but she solemnly accepted and met with him in the silence of his home.

They had sat together on his couch and said nothing for the past forty-five minutes. Finally he was unable to keep it to himself anymore. Without looking at her, he spoke.

"Do you think…do you think it was something one of use said, or did it him that day?"

Sakura shook her head sadly. The same question had been running through her mind all morning. Was Iruka-sensei right? Did something trigger what happened to their teammate? Did they do that to him? But if that was the case, then how and why did the memory of the time Naruto spent with them end up on a milk carton?(1)

"I…" For a moment she was unable to say anything, trying to smoothen out the crack in her voice. How could she tell him that maybe it was something they had said? That would be confirming it and she didn't want to do that. Yet it was that, or let the guilt eat them alive.

"Maybe I was too harsh on him that day. I did say some pretty mean things to him." She admitted. Sasuke didn't say anything.

After a long silence, she began to get frustrated.

"Say something!" She yelled, her high-pitched voice cutting through the air like a hot knife through butter. Her voice reverberated through the empty room like a shout in space.

Sasuke looked over at her, but he wasn't surprised. He knew what she wanted to hear.

"Don't just sit there and act like you didn't say anything too! Like you didn't do _anything_!"

He turned on her, having had enough. "And what's sharing the blame going to do?! We all say mean things to him, he's Naruto! Why did it have an effect now?! Why not before, when we were at the Academy, why not when we were in the Chuunin Exams?! Why not…why not before we became a team?" He finished, and he knew his voice broke, but didn't care.

Why not then?

She stared at him with sad green eyes and couldn't find a thing to say. He was right. Why now?

*******************************************************

Iruka didn't have to search to know that there were ANBU hanging around his apartment.

One was actually inside. One on his roof. One by his windows. The Hokage had no faith in him, and rightly so. He would have murdered Kakashi Hatake if given the chance, Sarutobi knew that.

Iruka knew he'd be on constant supervision until the whole thing blew over, if it ever did. He had been 'excused' from his classes and Aoba had taken over so now he had nowhere to go but to work in the mission room. They allowed him at least that, though he couldn't say he was grateful. He would be a loose canon and would likely make many an enemy with a lot of ninja, when the ninja he really wanted to kill was out and about, with no ANBU guarding him no doubt.

The hovering presence was a bit unnerving but did not dissuade his routine, which was certainly not his usual one. He had slept in most of the day because he didn't want to wake up and face reality. He knew it was a foolish reason, especially in the profession he was in, but he couldn't stand thinking about the boy he had looked to as a younger brother. He couldn't stop thinking about the way Naruto had grabbed his kunai and hurt himself severely with it. Iruka's own weapon. He couldn't forget how Naruto screamed and pleaded to die, his voice so filled with pain and misery that at one moment Iruka wondered how people could force the child to live when he felt that way.

When the drugs wore off after he met with Kakashi's team, he hadn't made it home before he collapsed to his knees and heaved up all he had consumed in the day. He had spent an extra five minutes dry heaving on top of a building.

Now there were ANBU everywhere and he wasn't allowed to see Naruto. He had argued with the old man that if he couldn't see him, then Kakashi shouldn't be able to either. The bastard just looked at him as he was escorted out by a Jounin and didn't say a word and he knew that Kakashi would be allowed to see him. He was incensed beyond words but could do nothing about it because ANBU had followed him home.

He lay in bed thinking about the first time the Hokage had told him about Naruto. He hadn't believed a single word the old goat was saying and had laughed about it. None of it could be true.

Until he had heard.

One can gather a lot hanging around in a bar, and drunken ninja gossiped like crazy, especially when drunk.

There were a group of them sitting around and he had been sitting adjacent to them on a barstool, minding his own business when one of them said something that made his blood turn to ice.

"You want to come with me tonight? Tonight me and the guys are going to get some of that demon tail again, you've gotta try it, that kid's got the tightest ass ever!"

Iruka instantly knew whom they were talking about.

Looking back on it now, he was surprised that he didn't attack them in a blood red rage. Instead, he had gone to the Hokage's office and demanded that the old man explain to him why he was letting his ninja rape a six year-old boy.

"What can I do?" Sandaime had said. "If I punish them, then I will have less loyal ninja to protect the village. At these times we need all the manpower we have. I will have next to no ANBU if I punished them all. It's for the village, Iruka."

For the village? Naruto was getting raped, beaten, and drugged for the village? Wasn't he doing enough by holding back the Kyuubi?! Without him, there would be no fucking village! Iruka had voiced his opinion and the Hokage closed his eyes and casually puffed his pipe.

"But there is," was all he said.

If attacking the Hokage wouldn't end in certain death, Iruka would have lunged over the table and shoved that pipe down the sick fucker's throat.

That day, he had lost all respect he ever had the leader of his village.

Then there was the matter of Kakashi and his team. Whatever little bit of reverence he had for the copy-nin dissolved like ash in the wind. As for Sakura and Sasuke, he knew their cruelty played a factor in Naruto's breakdown, but he didn't know which of the three of them it was that did it.

But he would find out. Because if there was one man in the village who didn't care for Kakashi or the Uchiha clan, it was Ibiki Morino. And just for that reason, the interrogation specialist would question the girl and her teammate. There was no need to question Kakashi, Iruka already knew he was guilty. Not that Ibiki was really doing it for him, he didn't have that much power, but the Hokage was curious too so it was going to happen on Sandaime's orders. Knowing that he would get some answers no matter who didn't like it made Iruka's spirits lift a little.

Tomorrow, he would go back after noon and see Team Seven. Though Ibiki and he were partial to each other, the man wouldn't be at liberty to explain what he had done or how he had done it, so he would look for the obvious proof and confront Sasuke and Sakura. That way, he'd be much closer to the truth. Then he could plan his revenge.

He clenched his hands in frustrated anticipation and winced at the burning discomfort. Though Naruto had cut his hands up, he still couldn't be angry at the boy for that. Naruto was not in his right mind, so it was easy to forgive him for something that wasn't his fault. It was that same feeling Iruka had that made him befriend the younger one in the first place. Kyuubi's presence was not Naruto's fault, so how could he hate him for that?

What was worse, was that people that didn't know about the fox still found ways to criticize him about his performance as a ninja and his intelligence. Yet they forget the fact that improper treatment could result in deprivation and such was the case for their fellow comrade. Naruto hadn't been given the proper tools to become a ninja as good as his mates, but not for Iruka's own lack of trying. A schoolteacher simply wasn't enough to make him as efficient as he needed to be. He hadn't been taught how to read by anyone but Iruka, and even then, being a ninja was not based mostly on reading, so the Chuunin didn't have the luxury of teaching him very well. He had to even buy Naruto his weapons because the vendors didn't allow him to buy his own.

It was a cruel world all around Naruto, any number of things could have gone wrong, but the one thing that had him so pegged on Team Seven, was the timing. Naruto could have snapped at any other time, but to do so when he was in their presence was not a mere coincidence. Iruka _would _get to the bottom of it, and somebody _would _pay. Even if it weren't him dealing the dish of revenge, he was sure that the good force of karma was on his side.

Despite his closest person being in the state and place that he was, it was thoughts like these that helped Iruka Umino sleep at night.

One day, those who had wronged Naruto would pay.

TBC….

Yes, it's a bit short, but you know how I do it, lol. Review away! And yes, I will explain the blood, but I have to admit, I may forget, so try and remind me. Though it should come in handy soon enough. Sorry about any typos, I never edit, it's too troublesome.

(1) Missing. I'm sure you'll get it soon. I didn't make that up either.


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: Hi, I'm back with chapter four. Please don't kill me for taking too long (those of you who didn't reassure me that you were okay with my leave of absence). Please read the note at the end.

* * *

What Its Like Chapter Four

* * *

Just when he thought that he would never see another person again Naruto found himself being dragged none too nicely though a long, wide corridor. He let it happen, busy taking in the sights. Maybe he could find something useful on this little trip. He looked everywhere he could, only seeing doors, the floor and the ceiling. He had asked where he was being taken, but the person leading told him to shut his mouth and move, and when he hadn't, they'd begun to drag him. Now he was limply sweeping along the floor, the rough maroon carpet burning his heels, knees and calves. Then he saw the stairs. The long, winding, carpet-less, stone stairs. He let them take him to them.

He looked at his captors to make sure that they weren't anticipating anything. As they neared the staircase, one of the turned to him and said,

"You better start walking, brat. We're not supposed to abuse you, but we will take you where we have to take you, even if we have to drag down the stairs. And it will hurt."

Naruto merely stared at the floor, disinterested, hoping the man would hurry and get to the damn stairs. When he didn't move or talk, the medic-nin holding his arm painfully jerked him forward in frustration and they began their descent. Naruto didn't waste any time. Fortunately, medic-nin weren't very good ninja.

He snatched his arm out of the man's grip and flung himself forward, headfirst. There were shouts of alarm and he felt the satisfying crack of his skull against the stone steps. He smiled as his vision of the stairs blurred, his head hitting every step on the way down. The rush of feet faintly reached his ears and his hopes to reach the bottom were dashed as he was grabbed and pulled up roughly. Warmth trickled down his forehead as the dizziness turned to darkness and his neck went limp. The small smile never left his face.

* * *

"Well," Sandaime started, shuffling through a stack of papers, "I obviously should have let ninja escort him." There was the sound of a throat clearing in the otherwise quiet room, and he looked up, giving the man who reported the incident to him an expectant glare.

"I'm sorry, Hokage-sama, we just hadn't expected---

"You didn't expect a suicidal boy to try and kill himself? Those stairs are every suicidal child's dream come true! And you took him right to them! Those elevators we have in that building aren't there for decoration!"

The man blanched fearfully. He stuttered as he tried to explain why they hadn't made use of the elevators.

"The elevators were on the other side of the quad, we just wanted to follow your orders as expedi---

"There is no place for sniveling here. You are to take 35 D-rank missions next week, and I expect all of them to be completed." Sarutobi turned in his seat and gave the man his back.

The man nodded, gritting his teeth and bowing stiffly, he left the room, clenching his jaw in anger. All because that little piece of shit he had to do all of those D-rank missions in just one week. He wanted to go and beat the brat to a bloody pulp but Naruto was in the ICU and he wouldn't get away with it anyway. And the little bitch would like it too much.

He'd been the only one punished because he had been dragging the boy. He was looking forward to pulling him down the stairs, but he certainly hadn't expected his detainee to jump.

He growled and stalked out of the building.

Fucking demon.

* * *

"No, Kakashi. It's orders straight from the Hokage, they're coming with me. And you can't accompany us." Ibiki sneered the last part, seeing the defiance in the copy-nin's eyes.

"Why not?"

Ibiki pushed Kakashi out of his way and went for the scared girl and the slightly alarmed Uchiha. He would take them by force if necessary, and Kakashi wasn't going to stop him.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura cried as one of the interrogation specialist's strong burly hands descended on her.

"He's just going to ask you two some questions. You'll be fine." Kakashi tried to reassure them but knew by the look in her eyes that he'd failed. Ibiki gave him a smug look and he glared back.

Sasuke jumped out of the way and tried to shout a warning to Sakura but a sharp chop to the back of his neck thwarted him. Ibiki picked him up and threw the boy over his shoulder and grabbed Sakura and dragged her away kicking and screaming. Kakashi knew he could take Ibiki and stall him while they ran, but it was the Hokage's orders and if he wanted to be punished he would do that.

Ibiki was only questioning them, but he knew that the man stopped at nothing to get the information he wanted. His methods weren't meant for children. Kakashi was also a bit angry that the man hadn't wanted to question him. All that happened the last time was Ibiki sedated him and used a memory blockage jutsu to help him cope. It was like they thought it was the kids' fault that Naruto went insane. But it wasn't. It was his.

'_They did say some things to him too. But he lost it after what _I _said. Could it have been a coincidence?' _In a sick way, Kakashi hoped that it was just a coincidence. He didn't want to be at fault for what happened. Iruka's voice floated into his head and he closed his eyes briefly and sighed. The Chuunin was probably right. He was guilty. What must Minato think of him now?

'_Nothing good' _He thought dryly. Minato was probably somersaulting in his grave by then. He had made Kakashi promise with his last dying breath that he would protect his son and Kakashi failed spectacularly. He had agreed to the promise, and had shadowed Naruto for three years of his life, but the Third had told him that it was unnecessary for him to do so, as he was being well taken care of. Well what the hell did 'well taken care of' mean? Last time he'd heard, it meant something good, and nothing good was happening to Naruto. But he still should have kept his promise to his sensei. If he had, then Naruto wouldn't be losing his mind so young. He wouldn't have had to have gone through all he did, and Kakashi wouldn't have a murderous Chuunin plotting on him as he was sure Iruka was. And Naruto wouldn't want so desperately to die.

But he had failed Minato's wishes, failed his student, and failed his team.

"You fool…" he muttered angrily to himself. He knew he had no right to be upset, but he was. He hated himself for not paying attention to the student he should have been paying attention to the most. He felt even stupider for thinking that Naruto could stay happy when everybody hated him. He was just a child and children needed love and care more than anyone and Naruto had never gotten that. Obviously the Hokage and his lackies weren't providing it.

Kakashi had to fix this. Somehow, he had to rebuild Naruto's life and save him from himself. He had to do it, or die trying.

* * *

"And this isn't a threat to you, Hiruzen?"

Sarutobi shook his head once, stiffly, as he had been asked the question four times in four different ways. Homura and Koharu had been drilling him all afternoon about Naruto. He wanted to keep the boy's affairs out of the nosy council members' business but he should have known that it was impossible to do so when even a good portion of the civilians knew what had happened. They were telling him to either do something about the 'threat' or they would. He knew what they wanted him to do. They wanted him to kill Naruto. Kill him because he held the Kyuubi and if he was crazy then there was a good chance that he would lose control. Sandaime was well aware of the risks of keeping the child alive, but so far the seal was well intact and nothing involving the nine-tailed fox had been brought to his attention. But the council was convinced that he was hiding something from them because he had formed an attachment to the blonde container.

They were correct in their suspicions, but only hypothetically. _If _he knew something like that, he certainly wouldn't tell them about it. Koharu glared down her bony nose at him and he had the distinct urge to spit in her wrinkled old face.

"Well, we think that it is. You may be the Hokage, but we still make all informed decisions, especially pertaining to that boy. Valuable time and resources are being wasted on him, when at any moment he could---

"Are you saying that you doubt my methods, Homura? Are you implying that I would let the fox destroy Konoha again? I'm aware of what may happen, but the possibility would not be so large if not for the harsh treatment the village imposes on him. He is the demon container, he is the son of our late Hokage, and he is dangerous because of those things, but first and foremost, he is a human child. He has feelings and hopes and dreams and this village took all of that away from him. If what you fear comes to pass, then it will be no fault of his nor mine, but of---

"ENOUGH!"

"HIRUZEN!"

The Hokage sunk back into his padded chair and rubbed wearily at his temple. They wanted him to speak when he had nothing to say, and when he did have something to say, they refused to hear it. They had always been that way since childhood, Homura was the one that asked the annoying questions and always had something to imply, and Koharu was the one that always glared and flapped her lips, neither one of them wanted to hear what anyone else had to say, unless it was what they wanted to hear.

"Well you can't always get what you want," he muttered under his breath, not because he was afraid of what they might do, but because he was telling it to himself. No matter how bad he wanted to protect Naruto, leave the council room, take a stiff drink, spit in Koharu's face and get rid of his throbbing migraine, he couldn't just because he wanted to.

"What did you say, Sarutobi?" Koharu hissed. They called him by his last name or his first, never by his lordship, never as if they were speaking to a person of equal of better stature than they. But when they called him by his last name, they were most displeased.

For his own dry amusement, he repeated himself. "You can't always get what you want."

They were stricken with rage. Koharu stood quickly, nearly taking the peaceable tea table with her and pointed a gnarled finger between his eyes.

"You!" She spat, as if the word were a foul taste in her mouth. "Mind your words, Sarutobi!"

"Koharu…" Homura protested halfheartedly. He too wanted to strike the village leader for his insolence but had refrained from doing so with the thought of their intended plan in mind.

She stayed standing glaring at her former teammate with as much loathing as a glare could harbor. "I do not know where you get off putting the lives of our people in danger but I will not have it! I hereby declare a motion to have your lordship revoked under the pretenses of overtly and unreasonably endangering Konohagakure!"

Sarutobi was not surprised but had the decency to protest. "You want to kill a child! The child of our late---

"I don't CARE whose brat he is! I want our village to be as safe as possible and harboring that demonic little thing and giving it a chance to fester it's evil plans und---

"Naruto is not an _it_! He did not _choose _to be the container of a demon! He did not want any of this, nobody did! It's people like _you _and the absent-minded villagers you've corrupted that make monsters out of people! What do you want?! First, you thought he would make the perfect weapon and now he's a threat! How can he not want to die when you're letting people do all sorts of unspeakable acts to him! People think _I'm_ letting this happen, but it is YOU! He's not a monster, YOU are! You cannot fathom what it must be like to be him, to have to defend this village of people who hate and hurt him with his own life and not have a choice in the matter! If he wanted to let Kyuubi free to slaughter us all I would hope that you have enough humanity in you to feel guilty!"

Homura lost his temper and stood to attack the Hokage. Sandaime flipped over the back of the chair and put his arms up in time to block the punch. Koharu must have been equally incensed because she sprang forward with a kick aimed for his head. He deftly deflected both hits and propelled his body backward, simultaneously divesting himself of his robes. Koharu and Homura did the same and both of them blurred through the hand signs of a combination jutsu. He recognized the jutsu right away.

"Katon: Gamayo Emudan!" Koharu spit the oil and Homura spit the fire. The entire room's contents erupted in flames and Sarutobi moved to the farthest end of the room away from them to counter.

"Suiton: Suijin Heki!" Water erupted from the floor, where the main pipe ran underground and formed a wall between him and the fire, effectively wiping it out.

Koharu frowned. If that old coot thought that he would hide amongst the smoky mists of their de-flamed attack then he had better think again. She poised one foot in front of her and the other behind the first, and nodded to her partner. Homura took a few steps back. Sarutobi, in the mist, couldn't see her, but he could feel one of them draw back on a considerable amount of chakra.

"Fuuton: Kaze Jyuuken!" She spun around until she was a blur and began to move toward Sandaime, dispelling the clouds of mist shrouding him from view. The Hokage sucked his teeth juvenilely and raised his hands for another jutsu, but Koharu was in front of him and all he could do was put his hands up to defend himself. Her spinning body was like a spinning blade, reinforced by molded chakra and if he wasn't wrong, kunai. Just as he had begun to wonder what Homura was doing there was a brief flash of pain in his left side. The older man stabbed him in the torso repeatedly. If he were to take his arms down, Koharu would rip into him, and with his back again chakra infused walls, he had nowhere to go. He didn't want to do what he was going to do next, but he had to. He spiked his chakra as high as he could, affording him minimal protection against Koharu's jutsu. His hands and arms were shredded almost to the bone then and the other one was still stabbing him, unable to get close enough for a fatal shot with Koharu's jutsu blowing him away.

Homura held fast to Sandaime's arm, using all of his anger and strength to propel his arm forward despite the force of the wind his partner was creating with the justu. Sarutobi grit his teeth and growled in pain. The jutsu wouldn't last much longer and he was sure he could hold out until it did. Where the hell were his ANBU?! Without them the chakra around the wall could not be broken by anybody else except him, but with his current problem he wasn't going to be able to. Even when Koharu's jutsu did finish, he might lose the use of his arms and a lot of blood.

Homura allowed himself to be pushed away by the wind and hopped back several paces as the jutsu began to slow down. A few moments later, she had stopped and was panting raggedly. The jutsu was powerful, but like all powerful jutsu, it had its price. She would not be able to use anything but taijutsu for a while, but even then she would need a moment to rest. That was where he came in.

"I don't suppose you want to change your mind about the boy?" He asked his former teammate.

"You've supposed right." Sandaime had called for his ANBU over a minute ago, there was no reason for them not to respond. It was time for him to use _that _jutsu.

* * *

Ibiki had his weapons drawn the instant he got up the stairs and to the floor the Hokage's rooms were located. Something wasn't right. Where was everybody? He scanned the area quickly and muttered 'kai' five times under his breath. When nothing happened, he began to quickly look for traps. He found none. Standing in front of the door, he felt that the protective barrier was still around it, so the Hokage was either safe, or in danger and judging by the looks of things, Ibiki was certain it was the latter. He knew the Hokage had already called for the ANBU if he was in trouble, but he did it again anyway.

"Cat, Tiger, Monkey and Bear, bring three reinforcements to the tower. Look out for traps on the way here and make sure to keep the other three backups several meters behind you. I want a protect, detect, and reflect formation at the highest, lowest, and middle-most positions in the village facing the tower from the east, west and south. You will follow my orders and they will follow yours." He didn't wait for a response because one wasn't coming.

He put a hand on the wall and concentrated with his eyes closed. A jolt of activity went through his pulses and he pulled his hand away. There was frantic heated movement beyond the wall, which could only mean one thing. But with who and how without alerting the guards? Movement from his peripheral signaled the arrival of the four ANBU he had requested. They nodded to him and put their hands on the wall to drop the barrier. Once it was dropped, they all formed seven shadow clones and rushed the room. Had it been any other enemy, they would have been prepared to kill, but they were stopped short by the site of their council fighting with their Hokage.

"W-what the hell is going on here, sir?" Bear cried out in surprise. Sandaime, who was on his knees in a kunai struggle with Homura, didn't answer them. Koharu was laid out near the window, unconscious. Both he and Homura were now covered in blood and most of it looked to be coming from Sandaime.

"Hokage-sama!" Cat rushed forward and drew his katana, ready to cut down Homura.

"Tenzou, no!" Sandaime yelled at him and he stopped, torn between ignoring the direct order and protecting his leader or watching him get hurt, possibly even die.

Ibiki watched, only slightly perturbed. The council and the Hokage had never been on fair and equal terms and he knew that it was only a matter of time before the rift between them led to something violent. He also knew better than to disobey his head commander's orders unless it directly endangered the village. But since it was just those two, he told his ANBU officers to stand down. Cat didn't move from where he was, ready to kill at a moments notice and Ibiki let him stay there for precautionary reasons if the Hokage asked.

"You know," Homura gritted through his teeth, "I have all the incentive they need to betray you."

Sandaime glared at him silently, feeling his remaining strength slipping away, but he refused to give up.

"They all know what a danger it would be to keep that thing alive. You have trained them to serve Konoha well. Save yourself some dignity and back down now. You will not win this. No one will agree with you to wager the lives of all of our people for one boy, especially not this one you are fighting so hard to save. If you stop now, you may even keep your title of Hokage."

"I am fighting for Konoha as much as you, Homura. You don't even know what killing him would do. It would break the seal, and then what? You would have to perform another sealing ritual, and who can do it but me? I refuse to. It is you who should relent. We have a much better chance keeping him alive and detained rather than risking everything on the foolishness you're basing this very fight on. I don't plan on losing, and my ANBU will not disobey me. They share my logic and as you've said, I've trained them well. If anyone will fall here, it will be you."

Homura's rage returned and for a split moment he forgot where he was and what he doing. His left arm had been broken by Koharu's body being flung into his by an unexpected attack and with his right arm he swung to punch Sarutobi. However, it the was same arm protecting him from the other man's kunai and the instant he pulled back, he knew he'd made a mistake. Sarutobi's eyes widened as his body fell forward with the force he was exerting to hold Homura's knife back and his own weapon sunk into his former teammate's neck. Homura's gasp was cut off by the kunai penetrating his jugular.

"Hokage-sama!" Someone called, but he didn't know who. He could only watch his council's eyes waver in his skull, then roll back as blood was wheezed out and around his damage larynx and through his mouth to pour down his bearded chin in large red rivulets. Homura's body fell backward, the weight pulling the kunai from Sandaime's startled hand and he was dead before he hit the floor. The room went silent in shock. They all watched their leader's horrified expression as he killed one of the most important people in the village. Cat's katana clattered to the floor.

Sarutobi's arm dropped limply to his side. A hand was on his shoulder and someone kneeled in front of him, their mouth moving rapidly, but he couldn't hear what they were saying. Ibiki stared at Homura, then looked at Koharu. They couldn't let her wake up.

He threw a brief glance at Monkey and the ANBU nodded, walked over to the old woman, knelt down, and calmly slit her throat.

Sarutobi let out a shaky sigh. "Naruto…"

TBC…

* * *

I'm so sorry, guys! I'm so busy with school and all that I don't really have time to write anything. I said that I would have a gift for you guys, but that will come later because finishing this chapter was impromptu. I am working on those gifts, though they all exceed 20 pages so it's not easy finishing them all at the same time because I want them to be oneshots so you all won't have to wait. Anyhow, this should hold you until I get through these next three weeks, then I might be able to update depending on what happens between now and then. I hope you haven't all lost interest and I promise that I won't forget about this story or those gifts. So please, once again, bear with me, and I'll update as soon as I can. While time passes, I will be typing some of the next chapter as I get little bits of time but since they have to be a certain length, I have to have enough time to achieve it. I love you all, thanks so much for reviewing!

P.S: Don't be concerned with what _that _jutsu is. It does not matter. And no, I didn't create name for it. It wasn't relevant enough for the transition between scenes.

Ja'Ne!


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: *SIGH* I miss you guys. Please read the author's note at the end and enjoy.

* * *

Naruto had been moved to a special needs facility on the outside of Konoha. The facility was in the Fire Country, but everybody knew that it was dangerous to house unstable ninja within the village. Sandaime had not wanted to have him moved, but after some convincing from Ibiki, decided that it would be best for a while.

"Maybe the change in scenery will help in the treatment," Ibiki offered. The Hokage just stared at him. Since the deaths of Homura and Koharu, he had been quiet and listless. He spent a lot of his time and resources on Naruto and did not let anyone but Ibiki and a few doctors near him. The rest of the council had deliberated what to do about Homura and Koharu's deaths, but brought the case to an end after they had weighted the issues.

Homura and Koharu had expressed intentional desire to kill one of their own comrades and carelessly planned to put the village in danger by doing so. Sarutobi's decision was the lesser of two evils. They knew that the chances of Kyuubi escaping with Naruto dead were greater than they were when the boy was alive. The two old council members would have faced excommunication had they lived. However, Sarutobi would have to cut his term as Hokage short effective in three months, but other than that faced no punitive discipline.

He had little thought as to whom his successor would be. He knew in his heart that he did not want it to be anybody like Homura or Koharu. That excluded any of the Hyuuga main branch leaders. Only a sad few were even powerful enough to take on the title and it made him wish that he did not do it twice. He had three people in mind, but of course he had to dedicate time to finding them, time that he did not have.

"The Slug Princess or the Toad Sage are very good choices, Hokage-sama. But getting one of them to agree will be next to impossible."

It was true. Jiraiya and Tsunade despised paperwork. One was a perverted drunk and the other was a gambling addicted drunk. Neither of them sounded terrifically promising, but they were strong and wise and there really was nobody else capable of the job. If he didn't chose one of them or his third option, an exceptional ANBU captain he'd had his eye on for months, then Konoha would have no leader. The council were only too eager to appoint someone like Danzou or a Hyuuga and he didn't want that. Naruto would not stand a chance if a Hyuuga were Hokage. Danzou would exploit the boy's curse to crush other countries for his own sick greed and run Konoha into the ground. He had to do something.

"Fine. Get a Chuunin team and one ANBU together to find them both. They can take as long as the time I have left to bring them here. Yuugao will be the escorting ANBU for her medical ninjutsu and skills. Shikamaru Nara, Koga Zantetsu, and one of the Hyuuga chuunin, whichever, will be going. Get them together by tomorrow."

Ibiki bowed and left to collect the group. He wasn't particularly happy to be having to look for a new leader but he didn't want Konoha to be weakened by Sandaime's departure. The last time they went without a leader for five weeks, nations outside of the Fire Country got uppity and tried to start wars. He had gone through three Hokages so far and did not look forward to a forth.

In his wildest dreams he had not expected their experiment with the Uzumaki boy to blow up in their faces to such a large and damaging degree. Two people were dead and the village was about to lose their Hokage. But he didn't hate Naruto. The poor child was the victim if nothing else, and it wasn't as if he allowed it. In fact, Naruto did not like the idea to begin with. Hiruzen felt more than inclined to help the boy, seeing as he was the child on their late Yondaime. Yet, now that everything had gone awry, he could not help but feel bad about it.

Naruto was suffering and he didn't know what to do. He still did not know who was responsible for the failure but Ibiki was already on that. When he found out, it was sad to say that the information would likely not be kept under wraps. He had kept enough of Naruto's life a secret. Someone had to know what it was like for the child.

Someone had to take the blame.

At the moment, the other two Genin of Team Seven were awaiting interrogation and Sarutobi decided he would do something he did not usually do. He would listen from behind the mirrored glass. Ibiki would usually report to him, but this time, he wanted to hear for himself. He wanted to know why Naruto had regressed so suddenly, and who was the person that caused it.

When the interrogation specialist returned from assembling the team for the reconnaissance mission, it would begin.

* * *

Iruka sped his pace up when he saw the scarred ANBU with three other people, one of them being his former student, Shikamaru. He had been hoping to catch up to the other man for days, but had not been fortunate enough lately. He wasn't going to miss his chance now.

"Ibiki-sama!" he called, jogging to him. Ibiki looked up and seeing who it was, promptly turned his head and walked off, hoping the other ninja would get the hint. Iruka frowned. He wasn't getting away from him!

"Ibiki-sama!" He called again, running now. Ibiki sighed when he saw the young Chuunin coming.

"Umino-san, to what do I owe this---

"I think you know." Iruka interrupted the man's casual greeting with a wave and a growl. He didn't want to play any games. He had to know who had done it, and he had to know soon.

"I'm busy. And besides, it isn't any business for a Chuunin."

"Cut the bullshit, Ibiki! Who else but me would you---

"What would knowing do for you?" It was the voice he'd asked the question with that made the younger man furious. It was light and calm, almost _therapeutic. _

Iruka barely suppressed the urge to shout. He wanted to bring great harm to the person who had hurt Naruto. He would not hurt the kids, but Kakashi….it was the Jounin's fault that they got away with the way they treated Naruto. He couldn't very well reveal any plans to hurt a fellow comrade, especially not in the presence of an ANBU, Ibiki Morino no less. So he just stood there with his hands clenched into painful fists at his side and glared at the man.

"Very good," Ibiki conceded. "If the kids want to let you know, that is up to them. I am at no liberty, nor am I obligated to tell you. It is a crucial part of my job to keep things like that between as few people as possible. And by people, I mean ANBU rank and the Hokage. No offense, Umino-san, but….you understand?"

Iruka said nothing, but nodded stiffly. It looked like he was going to have to get the truth out of Sakura or Sasuke. He certainly wasn't going to get it out of their sensei. Ibiki and the trio he had in tow walked off and left the Chuunin even more desperate than he was when he saw them.

Someone was going to pay. But in the mean time, he would just have to be patient.

* * *

"I don't think I want to speak with you right now, Kakashi," the Hokage muttered, shuffling a stack of papers on the desk in front of him.

Kakashi shifted from one foot to the other. He had come to tell the Hokage about what had happened on the day that Naruto…lost it, and right then he wanted to swallow his tongue and lose his voice. But he had to do it. He had to. If he didn't, then who would?

"Kakashi, I know that in some fantasies in which I listen to whatever you have to say that no means yes, but in this case, no means no."

"I said something to him." Kakashi blurted.

The Hokage looked up and his wizened eyes narrowed. "What did you say?"

"I said I—

"What did you say to Naruto?!" Sarutobi snapped impatiently. The Jounin moved again to his other foot and sighed.

"I said… There would be a lot less frustration on the team if he just kept quite like Sakura and Sasuke_._"

The old man stared at him. Kakashi began to feel uncomfortable with the look he was being given and closed his eyes.

"I realize that it wasn't a nice thing to say but I swear I didn't know that would happen!" He tried not to hurry his voice, but he couldn't lie to himself. He was afraid.

Sandaime continued to stare at him for a short moment before he asked, "Have you ever said anything less 'nice' that that?"

What? Kakashi's jaw clenched. Even if he could remember if he had, was it a good idea to just say it?

Yes, he thought to himself. He had to. If the Hokage did something to him it was his own fault.

"I…I don't know. I don't think so…but maybe I did something. Well there was this one time when he said something that caught me off guard---

"And this was?" Sandaime growled patiently. Kakashi didn't like the tone of his voice.

"Well, he said that I was playing favorites and that I didn't care enough to teach him anything because I was too caught up with Sasuke."

"And what did you say?"

Kakashi bowed his head. "I didn't say anything," he whispered. _'I ignored him.' _

"Get out."

He turned and left the room without another word.

* * *

"Hokage-sama…if I may pose a suggestion…" Inoichi started quietly, looking to the one-sided mirror glass at the blonde child inside.

"That would actually be welcome," the older man muttered wearily. He had been having a hard time figuring out what to do concerning Naruto's condition and would listen to anything that made sense.

"Well, I was thinking that putting more suppression jutsu on him wouldn't do him any good, so, perhaps we should set up a real environment for him that is similar to his sequenced life before…this. If we can find at least four people who care about him, because I mean, there has to be someone, then we can make it so that they are always together. I already have one person in mind. The Hyuuga heiress, Hinata, seems to favor him quite a bit. Iruka Umino is a given as well, however, his duties as a schoolteacher will have to be reduced to provide more attention for the child. If you can think of anyone else…otherwise, we'll have to start small. Another suggestion…perhaps Yuugao Uzuki would be a good choice, though I am not sure how dedicated she can be with her duties as a hunter-nin."

The Hokage put a hand up to silence him, and for a moment Inoichi was concerned that his suggestion was not as welcome as he thought it would be, but the older man spoke. "That doesn't sound like a bad idea at all, but the way you are posing this plan would require that those few people be around him all of the time. Iruka has duties, and as you know, it would be near to impossible to replace him as a schoolteacher, because nobody is as good as he is. As for the Hyuuga girl, that is only provided Hiashi would allow such a thing. You know how he is, and it is not within my capabilities anymore to override head clan decisions and vie for council approval since…"

Out of respect, the Yamanaka cut his leader off. "Well, then we should get started loosening Hiashi-sama up, neh, Hokage-sama?"

Sarutobi sighed. Hinata was a very good option. Likely the best, but Hiashi was not a nice man, and the Hyuuga hated Naruto with a passion. He didn't know what Inoichi thought he could do, but he would let him do it.

"Fine, but don't say I didn't tell you so. Otherwise, it's better to have her secretly see him before you bring it to Hiashi's attention. I won't be Hokage then, I don't know who will be, and if it isn't anyone I pick, then it isn't going to be good for Naruto." H paused and put a wrinkled hand over his face.

" I wish I could…" he stopped again. What would wishing do? He wished a lot of things, and all of them were impossible.

"And maybe…if this doesn't work….maybe we should just…I mean…I know Kyuubi is too dangerous to let fall into the wrong hands, but isn't this dangerous as well? Perhaps a good thing to do would be to keep him out of Konoha, but have some of the ANBU keep an eye on him. I happily volunteer my services, and I know a few others who will---

"But I can't make that decision anymore. That is out of my hands."

"I know," Inoichi muttered quietly. But if their plan for Sandaime's successor worked, then it would be a person who would not reject the idea of taking Naruto out of the village. After all, it was for the village's safety, and who didn't want that?

"Well then, you can go with the reconnaissance team. Follow up with Ibiki. You're dismissed, I have a ton of paperwork to do."

Inoichi bowed and left, slightly worried about is soon-to-be-former leader. Hopefully, his plan would work.

* * *

He felt really bad for not hitting something vital on the way down those stairs. Why couldn't they just let him die? Kyuubi wasn't averse to the idea, hell, he got his freedom when Naruto's life ended. There was no way any of them could have known that, and he would certainly never tell. That meant that they were torturing him.

But _why_?

What had he done? Every time he asked, he was told to shut up, or hit, or stabbed with a needle harder than necessary. What did the old man get out of keeping him alive? Was he being punished for being what he was? But if they didn't know that Kyuubi would be free when he died, then why not just kill him? Or did they consider it? If so… then he really had better try harder to kill himself. Maybe he would piss off one of the staff, or suffocate himself in the padded walls.

Now there was an idea he had never put to use.

Of course, he couldn't do it because not only was he no longer in a padded room, but he was being watched from the other side of a mirrored glass. How did he know? He could feel their useless pity from his corner. He also knew the old man was out there. It made him angry.

They were watching him as if he were some kind of spectacle and it was fucking rude, damn it! Everyone wanted to watch him suffer. Everyone wanted hurt him. Everyone wanted him to die miserable. Everyone hated him. He hated it. He wanted to watch _them _suffer. He wanted to hurt _them. _He wanted _them _to die.

And just like that, the overwhelming desire to kill entered him and he didn't fight it. He allowed it to push his teeth together until he tasted metal. He didn't close his mind to the gruesome thoughts of tearing _that old bastard's _throat out. Slowly. He would do it slowly. And make the bastard suffer like him.

He would take his time cutting the old man's arms off and make it so that he couldn't even flail them in agony. The horrible, and in his opinion, vindictive thing they put on him_ a straightjacket _took his fight away from him. He had hoped to do something useful with his legs, but they took that too when he jumped off the stairs. He would take everything from them.

_Die._

_Die, die, die, die—_

"_DIE!!!" _

He struggled fruitlessly in his binds and spit curses of fire and hatred at them, knowing they could hear him. He told them all the things he would do to them if he could. He told them of how horrible they were. They were liars.

The called him a demon.

They called him a devil.

They called him a bastard.

Their favorite thing to call him was 'monster'.

But that couldn't be true.

Because what they were saying was lies.

He wasn't the monster.

They were.

_Lies_.

He screamed as hard and as loud as he could, though he knew that to his audience it sounded nothing more than a whispered yell. Hot tears of incensed hatred gushed out his eyes and blood from his grinding teeth slid down his lip and dripped off his chin. The anguished screaming went on for several long minutes, and even after he could no longer make a sound, he pushed his lungs to wheeze and burn painfully.

_Hopefully he could do some damage._

His throat felt like he was swallowing hot coals when he pushed his abused voicebox past its limit, but he didn't care. He only wished he hurt something vital. He had nothing important to say. He just wanted to tighten his fingers around a strong neck and _squeeze _until the satisfying feeling of flesh sinking into crushed bone brought about the last labored breaths.

Anyone.

He would kill anyone. Even himself. All he needed was another chance. He wouldn't fail.

_Old man._

Those people…the pink-haired girl, the dark-haired boy, the silver-haired man…he would give anything for the chance to make them suffer. Anything to kill them. He didn't even know who they were.

_Not important._

Let them watch.

But they'd better be careful.

One slip.

One mistake.

One bit of misguided pity and it would all be over for them.

Now killing himself wasn't his top priority. He wanted to kill anyone he saw. He would not go to hell alone.

_More than enough invitations to go around._

How would he do it?

After some thinking, he realized that the main reason the old fart was making him to suffer was to force him back into the world to suffer more, to punish him. The only way to get back out there was to want to go.

_Or act like it. _

Maybe the screaming episode wasn't so conducive, but he'd managed before. How had he done it again? He didn't even know. He was confident that he was a good actor. He could be. He could be anything.

_Anything to get what he wanted. Anything to get out. _

Be a good boy, Naruto, he told himself. Be good and good things will come to you. He didn't stop the slow grin from spreading across his bloody lips. He put his head down so they wouldn't see. It was _his _secret. No one else's. His plan.

Now the question was: Could it work?

Only one way to find out.

* * *

TBC.

If anyone lost interest in this story, or simply got tired of waiting for an update, I don't blame you. I can't apologize sincerely enough. Life caught up to me and I've just been so busy. No excuse is good enough, I know. But still, I come with the next chapter, and I hope you enjoy it. I don't know when I'll update again. I'll be more busy now than ever. School sucks. Meh, oh well. But if I decide to discontinue this fic for a while, I promise I will let you know in advance. Again, I'm sorry it took so long, but here it is.

Ja'ne.


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: Yes! I did it! (waves at the crowd and blows kisses) It was all for you!

* * *

He hit the floor with a smack and an empty thud. Another resounding bang of the steel door and he was alone again. He tried to twitch and found that he couldn't. He couldn't roll over. He couldn't feel. He couldn't move.

_Jelly and water. _

That's what he felt like.

They had stuck him with a needle when they lost their patience with him, but he had _tried so hard_. He was doing so good, everything was going the way he wanted it to, but then he had seen a familiar face in the ward that morning and the ugly memories reared their heads in his and he lost it. He tried to hold on, but the man leered at him.

"_Who do you bleed for?"_

Not him. Naruto screamed and cried, _not him!_ He didn't bleed for that man! Nobody listened to his yells of accusation, _it was him! _he cried, and kicked, and flailed and they stuck the needle into his neck and then…

_Jelly and water._

And here he was. No padded walls, windows, light fixtures. _Torture. _He couldn't move. He couldn't even speak, and the temptation was nowhere in sight now. Not when his face was in the floor. He could just barely feel the drool pooling around his face on the tingling rubber that was now his skin. His eyes registered the dryness in them, but he was unable to blink.

_Frozen muscles, lax nerves, breathe in, breathe out._

He had failed. All because of _him. _It was years ago, but not long ago enough. Like yesterday. Too close.

"_Who do you bleed for?"_

He couldn't even scream. His throat gurgled out saliva until he was up to his ears in it. He was angry and couldn't express it. All the rigidity of his muscles was robbed from him, his nerve endings numbed with whatever was in that drug. He couldn't do anything.

And of course, he knew that they were watching him.

_What went wrong? _That was what the old man would ask.

_What do you care?_

How the ministrations of his own staff went unknown was a mystery to Naruto. He would tell the old bastard what went wrong.

_Where's the fun in that?_

What fun?

He wondered if he would go to sleep with his eyes open, or better yet, if he could. Would they dry out? Would they _fall _out? Would he drool all the water from his body?

_Where's the fun in that? _

He supposed there was none.

* * *

"And why do you always hit him?"

Sakura fidgeted in her seat. He hadn't tied her up, but she still felt like she couldn't run even if she wanted to. A scarred face with arctic black eyes glared at her, so close she could smell the sickness on is breath.

Trapped.

"If I have to ask again, I'm going to have to assume that you wouldn't mind if I grinded the bones in your hands to dust. It would be difficult to punch someone without the use of your hands."

It was usually a scare tactic used on foreign ninja that only worked on weak Genin and Chuunin, but for Sakura, Ibiki knew that the threat would do it's job without him having to follow through. Which was rare.

Sakura panicked. She needed her hands! "No! Please…" she couldn't help it and started to cry.

"Stop that blubbering. If I take those pretty emerald eyes out, you can't cry for yourself. Now, answer the question, I happen to have other people whose eyes I have to cut out." Ibiki muttered in a bored tone that belied all of the threats coming from between his barely moving bisected lips.

The girl blanched a pasty white color and swallow thickly. She knew what he was notorious for, but she had never been so afraid in all of her life. Her knees shook as she wringed her fingers so hard that they hurt. She solemnly thought of the pain that made her finger-wringing feel like tickling. When Kakashi tried to assure her and Sasuke that they would be alright with this...man, she felt so stupid now for believing him. She was terrified. She knew what this was, and what it was about, but she didn't know what she was expected to say. His question had caught her off guard, as if hitting Naruto was somehow the cause of his breakdown. Her eyes narrowed with worry. It couldn't be. And it wasn't like she....

"He…he's…" she pulled her bottom lip in between her teeth and gave the interrogator the most pitiful, fearful look she could muster.

...it wasn't like she knew that.

Ibiki just looked at her.

"He's annoying…he never shuts up, and I… " She could and had told dozens of people why she never liked Naruto, but in the face of the ANBU Interrogator, she felt like she was spilling her sins to a faceless man behind a wooden slab of wall. Ibiki wasn't a faceless man, but with his lack of expression, he might as well have been.

"Spit it out, or I'm going to have to bring---

"I don't know!" She yelled shakily and put her hands around her head to keep his bored, sadistic voice out of her ears. She didn't want to be there. She didn't want to be there alone with Konoha's most feared man. She wanted to go home. She wanted to---

Ibiki stood and very slowly leaned in toward her. Sakura screamed shrilly and pushed herself back instinctively with the balls of her feet. The chair she was in toppled and fell, bringing her head to the ground with a resounding thump. She scrambled to her knees and moved as far back and away from him as she could.

Ibiki sat back down.

"Now answer the question, or I won't hesitate to use the fact that you can't escape against you." In reality, he didn't have to lay a finger on her to get the information he wanted. Besides, those methods were just _so messy…_

"Please! He's stupid and he never hits back so I just…I just…I feel like…I'm better than he is. Stronger. Because he's….he's the deadlast and….he's so easy… to pick on…" she sobbed the last two words and broke down crying against the wall. Ibiki ignored her and advanced on her again. Seeing this, Sakura curled up into a tight ball and tucked her head between her legs, shaking so bad that she couldn't even keep her fetal position in place because her arms kept slipping.

The man crouched down on his haunches and leaned in to her ear and whispered, "But what if he hit you back?"

She continued to shake, but the crying had slowed to sniffles. Naruto? Hit her? He would never...

"What would you do?" He asked in a voice that could have been mistaken for soothing if not for the fact that there was nothing soothing about what was going on.

"Answer me fast and stop stuttering or I'll be sure to tell your Uchiha boyfriend that the reason I'm going to nail his mind to a cross is you."

_Nooooo!!! _

"W-wait!" She had to speak fast while she still had the nerve to consider Sasuke's well being over her own. _Because Sasuke meant everything to her. _

"I would try to fight him. I think…I think I would win. He's weak and stupid and I know chakra better than he does, so he…and if he did hit me, I'm sure Sasuke-kun would---

"Don't mention _his_ name unless I ask about him. I asked what _you _would do about it. And what if you fought him and lost? How would you feel about him?"

"He would be lucky." She responded with a whimper.

"Would he?"

She nodded her head and wished for the umpteenth time that she were somewhere else.

"I don't think so. But you know," he stood up, grabbing her arm and dragging her back to where they were sitting, and threw her in another chair that was leaning against a wall.

"I would think that after what the Chuunin schoolteacher said to you, you would be more inclined to keep such definite opinions to yourself, or at least modify them to be more, I don't know, understanding. I mean, the boy has had a hard life. Is it shocking to you that after being beaten for more than half of his life and not being able to fight back, that there would be a psychological reason to why he doesn't hit you back?"

She silently shook her head, hoping that he didn't expect a real answer.

"Oh come on, " he prompted, then whispered, "_You're smart_."

"No."

Ibiki wasn't swayed by her fear. She was flimsy in mind and in spirit. If she weren't a Konoha ninja, he would enjoy breaking her to pieces. As it were, at least he could enjoy making her feel like the guilty little bitch that she was.

"Sasuke doesn't hit him, and yet, he's strong enough to get away with it…for the most part. What could it be? Is he more…nevermind, I suppose I could _make him tell me._"

He brought his lips to her ear again and her eyes almost bulged out following his movements.

"Is he more stubborn? You would know…"

"I don't know…please, let me go now. I'm sorry about what ha---

"_SHUT UP!"_

Ibiki was not a temperamental man by any standards, nor was he angry or agitated at the moment, but a little girl like Sakura would be scared witless by his booming voice. He was right, for when he screamed, the pink-haired child shrieked and fell out of her chair again to take cover under her violently shaking arms and a brief shift of scent in the air made Ibiki stand up and grab the clipboard he had with him.

The girl had wet herself.

"We are finished here, Miss Haruno. You will be seen out and escorted to your residence."

As he walked out, two medic-nin walked in cautiously, glancing at the man when his back was turned and then looking to the cowering Genin who was still whimpering and shaking in a pool of her own urine with pity.

They gingerly picked Sakura up and dragged her outside to where a stretcher waited and laid her down. Out of empathy for her condition, one of the medic-nins reached in her pocket and withdrew a sedative to put the sobbing girl out of her misery. As she leaned forward to pull down Sakura's collar, Ibiki returned.

To the medic-nins, this was nothing to worry about. Sakura, however, started to scream.

"SASUKE!!!"

The Uchiha turned at the shrill scream of his name to see his teammate being held down on a stretcher by two medic-nins. From where she was and where he was heading, he guessed that Ibiki had finished with her. She looked terrible.

Sakura kicked and flailed wildly in until a sharp prick in her neck silenced her warnings to her dark-haired teammate.

Sasuke whirled on the Interrogator. "What did you do to her?!"

Ibiki was a bit surprised that the boy expressed any concern for his last victim.

"I didn't do anything to her. I simply asked her a few questions, as I'm going to ask you."

Sasuke glared out of the corner of his eye as Sakura was carried hastily down the hall.

"Here we are. Step inside and have a seat, please." A deadened voice droned. Sasuke looked up. The door they had stopped in front of was opened and the distinct scent of piss wafted from inside. He looked around at the dark room with only one light and _three _chairs. Why were there three---

"I said step inside." A heavy force shoved him past the threshold and into the room so hard that he nearly tripped and fell forward onto his face. As he spun around to give Ibiki a glare that could melt the caps off of a glacier, he was stilled by the sudden feeling that something wasn't right.

"Have a seat." Ibiki said again, but Sasuke found himself staring wide-eyed at the man and unable to move. Something about him made it feel as if the temperature in the room had dropped sharply.

Ibiki pulled a chair right-side up and put it up against the wall. Then he made his way to the centre of the room and righted the other chair, not bothering to avoid stepping in the puddle of urine. Sasuke watched his every move, even as the ANBU specialist walked over to him, hauled him up, and flung him into the chair against the wall. The chair rocked but didn't fall and before the boy could register what had happened, Ibiki was taking a seat of his own.

"I'll make this as straightforward as possible. How would you define your relationship with Naruto Uzumaki?"

Sasuke blinked and the dreadfully cold feeling of twisted fear was lifted enough so that he could hear the question asked of him. Naruto and his relationship?

"What relationship?" he sneered and Ibiki nodded, and wrote something down on a notepad he had picked up.

"I thought so," he muttered. "And how would describe Naruto as a person?"

The Uchiha sucked his teeth cheekily. Was this interrogation or therapy? Is this what Sakura was screaming to him about? What a joke.

"He was a deadlast, brainless idiot with no potential and no tact." He answered simply, wanting to get it over with as soon as possible.

Ibiki scribbled some more notes and nodded again. Sasuke repressed the urge to roll his eyes.

"So, what you're saying is, that you two weren't friends, and that he was too stupid for you to make friends with, correct?"

"Correct."

"I see."

The ANBU set aside the pen and pad and relaxed into his seat, regarding the dark-haired boy with a stone facade.

"So it is safe for me to assume that you had something to do with his current state of mental instablilty, correct again?"

"No!" Sasuke hissed. "I don't know what happened, but I'm not taking the blame for breaking his fragile little mind. I didn't do or say anything out of the ordinary on that day."

"Oh, so? His mind was fragile. You know that. But let's find out...how fragile is _your _mind?"

Dark eyes narrowed at the challenge. Ibiki looked away for a second to reach into his pocket for something. Sasuke's body tensed in preparation for a fight, but it was not a weapon Ibiki pulled out. It was a light. A light which he quickly flashed into the boy's eyes. Sasuke instinctively blinked with a growl.

When his eyes opened, he blinked again. Then his eyes widened in fear. He wasn't in the interrogation room anymore. The chilling familiarity of the place he was in now rapidly sank into him and he jumped out of the chair and to his feet.

_No. _

**He looked around franticly for what he knew he would eventually see. Suddenly, the ominously dark place was filled with the sounds of a small riot. Not a battle riot, but like....cheering.**

**Cautiously, he made his way to the sounds and as he got closer, he anticipated seeing his clan slaughtered like animals, but when he rounded the corner of a building he recognized as the Police Headquarters that his father worked for he didn't expect to see what he had heard.**

**People were cheering and laughing and for a moment it looked like they were having a good time until he got closer and saw in the middle of the crowd, a sword raised high and poised to come down. Some was being executed.**

_**"Kill it, Itachi-san!"**_

_**"Don't be hasty, Itachi-san, make it suffer!" **_

**Itachi?**

**Sasuke ran over to see what his brother was going to kill and prayed that it wasn't his parents. Maybe it was an animal or something. Nobody in the crowd was paying attention to him, either that or they couldn't see him. He found a small opening through which he could see what was going on and when he looked at what his brother was aiming to bring his sword down on, his reaction was not all that different from when he saw his family lying curled around their own entrails. His heart stopped.**

_**Naruto. **_

**_"Cut it to pieces, Itachi-san! Start with it's fingers!" _Someone enthusiatically yelled, but Sasuke didn't care who it was. He couldn't take his eyes off of what he was seeing. His idiot teammate was lying on the ground in tears, his clothing torn almost to shreds hanging off of his unnaturally skinny little body with bruises upon bruises and so many cuts marring his flesh that it was wonder how he was still conscious.**

**There was blood _everywhere. _**

**"What the...." Faces he knew where in the crowd. Shisui. Hadako. _Itachi. _**

**"St-stop!" he yelled, pushing at the ninja surrounding the helpless blonde but his hits had no affect, his screams fell on deaf ears.**

**"STOP IT!!!" He looked up at his older brother and watched the smirk cross Itachi's face. The sword descended and he closed his eyes. He watched the blade sink into the child's shoulder and gasped when he realized that he couldn't close his eyes. The sword came back up and down with a _whoosh _and blood squirted obscenely from the area between Naruto's neck and chest. The boy fell, writhing in a fit of screaming agony and Itachi lifted the katana again to deliver another blow that Sasuke was sure would end in the blonde's death.**

**"Itachi! That's enough!" A voice called, and Sasuke immmediately recognized it to be their father's, Uchiha Fugaku. Itachi glanced easily to the older clan member, who was accompanied by Konoha ninja outside of Uchiha and lowered his sword. The crowd began to disperse as if leaving a party, mumbling and laughing and jeering and whining. Sasuke watched his brother casually walk past their father.**

**"Leave it alone. If I see you near it again, you will never acknowledge yourself as my son again."**

**Itachi nodded and mumbled, "Yes, Father."**

**The image of his brother and father faded and he turned again to look at Naruto and watched the younger boy slowly roll over onto his knees and cover his excessively bleeding wounds with his arms, sobbing so hard that he wasn't inhaling enough air, causing him to choke and cough up blood. What he did next made Sasuke drop to his knees in shock. He shakily got to his feet, stood in the pool of his own blood, and started to limp away.**

**All the while Sasuke's father was watching him with a disgusted look on his face.**

**"Filthy demon," he murmured.**

The dark world was briefly lit up by an almost blinding light and Sasuke blinked. When he opened his eyes, he didn't know where he was.

"So, Sasuke-san," someone said.

His head jerked up to see Ibiki regarding him with bleak eyes. Events came rushing back to his mind and he was out of his chair.

"What the hell was that?!"

"Oh, it was just a little-

"You sonofabitch! If you think I'm going to fall for that just because Sakura did, you're wrong!"

"Fall for what?" Ibiki murmured innocently. "I didn't show Miss Haruno anything. All I did was ask her some questions. You know, she's not like you."

"I don't care! Like I would fall for something as fake and obviously---

"It wasn't fake."

Sasuke stopped and grit his teeth for a moment, almost swayed entirely by the seriousness in the man's voice. "Liar! How stupid do you think I am?! Those tricks won't work on me!"

"And yet you're getting so worked up about it. But as I said," the ANBU scribbled something on his notepad, "It wasn't fake. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, Sasuke-san, but it was all real. And that isn't even the best part. Sit down and I'll tell you." He said softly, as if inviting a small child to hear a story.

"Just hurry up and finished. I'm not interested in your games." Sasuke growled and sat back down, not out of compliance, but out of curiosity as to how Ibiki was going to explain that what he saw was real. Though he didn't show it, the genjutsu had more than shaken him up. It had felt real beyond words.

"Of course. It's very simple, what you saw was real, and though you may not tell me, I know it felt real too. The jutsu wouldn't have worked if you weren't there."

"What?!"

"You said earlier that Naruto's mind was fragile. But the things that led to the recent event concerning him was due to his mind being flooded by suppressed memories. Now, like I said, you had to have been there, and I mean that only literally. You were there, Sasuke-san. What you saw was your own memory that you have supp-

"Bullshit!" The Uchiha snapped, not ready to believe the man's lies. He would remember if something like _that _had happened and he was there. He would never forget it.

"But you did. You see, children, are very selective in what they choose to remember and what they chose to let effect them. This is why being a child is the safest period in a person's life. Children are resilient and quite like rubberbands. You can pull and stretch them and they can still snap back to normal. In your case, Sasuke-san, you are a broken rubberband, but the pieces of you are still rubber, and still retain mental elasticity, which means that if some memories in addition to others can make your mental environment unstable, you will naturally repress those memories to bring about as much mental equilibrium as possible. Even you are not completely mentally stable, what with the massacre of your clan."

He didn't want to hear it anymore. Ibiki was a specialist, which meant that he specialized in telling convincing lies, and Sasuke didn't want to hear it anymore.

"Shut up, old man. That isn't going to work on me."

Ibiki shrugged. "But it already has. It looks like you and Naruto aren't that different after all. You say that you are different, because of the obvious differences between the two of you, the salient ones, but what about the similarities that nobody can see?"

"There are none!"

"There really are, Sasuke-san. And you know it. Naruto has experienced unforgivable trauma, just like you have, but of course, this is where the similarites end. This is where you should be sympathizing with Naruto and understanding his plight. But you don't. You shut out the memory of your teammate getting hurt by your own clan, which essentially makes you an accessory to his mental breakdown." It was exactly true, but if the Uchiha thought that he could do no wrong, then he was sadly mistaken. If he thought that he could just go about watching things fall apart around him and act as if it didn't matter, then Ibiki would teach him that it did.

"It isn't my fault! What my clan did had nothing to do with me! It's not my fault I forgot about it! You explained yourself that repression was natural, so don't go trying to pin this on me! I would have stopped them if I could!"

Ibiki wrote another thing before putting the pad down again. "So you do believe that it was real. But you must remember, repress is not quite the same as forget. When I show you your own memories, just because you don't think about them, doesn't mean they are forgotten. You can never erase them from your mind. Now, you won't forget what I've shown you, and you cannot repress memories that are brought again into consciousness. Think of it when I ask you my next question, and answer truthfully this time."

But Sasuke didn't want to answer any more questions. He wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. The single light in the room wasn't enough to protect him from the stifling darkness and the stale scent of piss.

"Do you hate Naruto?"

He automatically shook his head no, hoping that this question was the last, but Ibiki had other intentions.

"Did you hate him before?"

Sasuke buried his fingers in his hair and shook his head again. He had to leave. He had to get out of there, and if he had to tell the man all he wanted to know, then he would, but he wasn't going to stay there all day.

"Why not?"

The boy looked up. Why not? What kind of question was that?

"What do you mean, why not? I had no reason to hate him. He never did anything to me."

"And yet, you teased him and always made him feel like he was lower than dirt around you. Why not just ignore him like you did Miss Haruno? Why not try to help him by making him feel like a part of them team instead of shunning him? Why not stop Miss Haruno from hitting him? Why not be his friend? Why---

"I DON'T KNOW!!" Sasuke screamed, slapping his hands against his ears to shut out the seemingly never-ending questions Ibiki was asking. The Interrogation Specialist had to write the reaction down only because he was amused by how much like Sakura the boy was behaving.

"I think you do know. I think you felt that there was something about him that would have set off unwanted feelings inside of you, or maybe threatened to resurface an unpleasant memory. Or maybe I'm wrong. Maybe you are just a cruel little brat who enjoyed seeing Naruto upset. Maybe you enjoyed making him feel like shit even when you knew that he was looking for a friend in you. Am I right, Sasuke-san?"

Sasuke just shook his head violently and tightened the hands in his hair. Stinging, frustrated tears slid down his cheeks and he was just another question away from screaming.

Ibiki silently watched him cry for a while and then stood.

"I'm finished here, Sasuke-san. But I would like to see both you and Miss Haruno again soon. Together." With that, he turned the small light off and left the room and Sasuke's head dropped into his hands and he sobbed angrily alone in the dark.

TBC....

* * *

Wow. I finally got it up. I'm using a community computer until I get another one. Anyway, YAY! Now, I know what some of you guys are thinking, you think this is another Team Seven-bashing fic, but it's not (right now it seems that way). Someone already assumed that, and I had to tell that person off. I still don't know where this fic is going of how it will end, but I can guarantee that you guys will like it. Again, I'm sorry for any typos, you know how I am.

Ja'ne.


	7. Chapter 7

A/N: I know I said that I wouldn't be able to get this chapter out until February, but I had some time on my hands and really didn't want to keep you waiting, so I forced myself to finish this. Keep in mind that I never plan what I'm going to right next. I only have an outline to begin with and the rest just flows, so sometimes I don't always know what I'm going to write and take a while coming up with an idea. Also not that I am too lazy to edit. But, as you'll see at in the end note, I have planned chapter eight out. I will begin that at the end of January. Once again, I can't say when I'll update, but rest assured that I will. I got my mojo back! Finals are going great for me and I wish good luck to everyone who has finals.

* * *

It could be said that in Konoha, like in any ninja village, that there was a tendency for one to look one way while inappropriate things are going on another way. It could also be said that the Hokage was not beyond employing such tactics, in fact, it was expected. But it was relatively rare for a man to suddenly become interested in things that they were once not interested in, especially when recognition of those things was likely to put said man in a lot of trouble. Knowing this, Sandaime had officially decided that he needed to evaluate his staff to see just what he might have been missing. It was not above him to 'overlook' the things his ninja did, if only it were for the greater good. But when it came to Naruto, one had to employ strategies to ensure that the impression of being what they were was held in the highest regard.

As Hokage, he had every right to check in on his shinobi and they had no right to question him. Of course, _they could_, but they knew that outwardly showing interest in his decisions was likely to put them in an undesirable position, thus, they looked the other way and did what they were told, and Sandaime, as Hokage, used the impression of being the most powerful ninja in the village to make sure that his shinobi asked no such questions and expressed no such interest about his inquiries or his decisions.

Those were good perks. And for a limited time, he would use them to their full advantage.

"You'll do your job as you always do it, but regardless of what you do, I want you to tell me what everybody else says and does."

As he told the man standing in front of him what he wanted him to do, Sarutobi could see the hesitation flicker in his eyes before it was quickly suppressed. Not that it mattered if the man was curious about his sudden desire to know things he had never wanted to know before. The man was only the seventh person he was telling this to. It wouldn't do to trust one person to tell him something they did not want to tell him. And, of course, he had outside observers and informants as well.

'_Can't let them think I'm getting soft in my old age'_ the leader thought wryly to himself.

The ninja nodded slowly, as if he didn't really understand what was being asked of him, but Sarutobi knew what that was. He was going to lie. The older man watched him leave before calling another man inside the office. The other man was a co-worker of the man that had just exited and though it may seem a foolish move to have them see him one right after the other, he had planned it just that way so that he could gauge the integrity of his ninja. As Hokage, if he found their integrity lacking, he could easily find ways to fix the problem. And he just knew it would be lacking. But one could never be too sure.

The plan was to test which of the staff members he had attending to Naruto was the most loyal. In the end, all he was really doing was giving them rope with which to hang themselves. They couldn't be very loyal if he had to resort to this. A loyal man would have told him if anything that would be considered grounds for punishment was going on in regards to the young blonde. And he _knew _that something wrong was going on. Naruto did not seem to be getting better and if he could throw himself down a flight of stairs as recklessly as he did, then obviously his men were not doing their jobs. If one man had told him that his ninja purposefully took the boy to the stairs with the intention of dragging him down, then he would have believed it and fixed the problem. But no one told him. They didn't have to; after all, he knew. Which is why he decided to take inventory of the loyalty his men had for him.

"If you notice anything strange going on with Naruto or if you see that he isn't being treated as I requested he be treated, tell me immediately." The man bowed immediately, not giving any indication that he was curious or prepared to lie and calmly left the room.

"Douzen." The young shinobi was at his master's side with commendable haste.

"If you see any unacceptable behavior, I want you to take it in stride. Act as if you are not different from them, but do not hit, defile, or drug Naruto. Just….fit in."

The man left and Inoichi stepped up to the Hokage's desk. Sandaime nodded and the blonde man knew what he had to do.

Sarutobi looked into his dark crystal ball. Since Naruto's mind had come asunder, the ball had cracked and ceased to work again. He took it as a bad omen. A very bad omen.

First, it had been Naruto's break, then his fight with Homura and Koharu and his pending expulsion from the council and now it looked like things were only about to get worse. He didn't know what would become of the boy when he was no longer Hokage, but he knew that many of his ninja were loyal to him and would help to protect Naruto at all costs. And Kami forbid he couldn't find Jiraiya or Tsunade in time and Danzo got a hold of the leadership….

Sarutobi rubbed his fingers against his temples to the ease the oncoming headache. If Danzo was chosen, then all that he could hope for was that the bastard kept Naruto alive. Actually, he was sure he would, but that did not mean that he would not have something worse in store than killing the child. The council would never be able to see past their own stupidity that using Naruto as a weapon would put Konoha in far more jeopardy than simply leaving him in a protected facility of just letting him be normal like everybody else. Danzo was a power-hungry, destruction-thirsty man who would stop at nothing to get what he wanted.

However, though he did care for Naruto and wanted only the best for him, it was not really the boy he was concerned about. It was Konoha. Not many people knew it, but Danzo had a sharingan. The sharingan was said to be able to control even the most maleficent beasts, and if this were true, Naruto would die and so would Konoha. The older man claimed to want to protect Konoha, but his true intentions were unclear, though Sarutobi was sure that it had nothing to do with protecting the village.

On top of that, he was not above being concerned for his own life. He and Danzo had never been on the same playing field and it was he who had usurped that scarred man for the title. No doubt he would hold a grudge against Sarutobi and must have been itching to get even with him. Also, with him out of the way, Danzo would be able to get to Naruto and if he did, then the rest would be history.

The only thing that would stop Danzo's plans for Naruto would be to kill the boy while he was still Sandaime Hokage, but he just couldn't fathom being able to do it. He would have to work as hard as possible to build up the stability team he had proposed to Inoichi and put even more effort into finding Jiraiya or Tsunade. Jiraiya, he knew, would help in a heartbeat once he heard that Naruto was involved. Naruto was the toad sage's godson and Hiruzen knew that if anybody would protect the boy with their very lives if he couldn't, it would be him.

Tsunade was also a good choice, but she knew very little of Naruto and had a tendency to be flippant and uncaring about things concerning the village ever since her brother and lover's demise. He knew that the blonde Sannin loved Konoha, but knew that the painful memories that coming back would bring her would likely make her turn the offer to become the Hokage down. Even if she returned, there would be friction between her and the council because she was the Shodaime's granddaughter and the rivalry between Danzo and Hirashima Senju left Danzo sore. He would not like having the woman as the Hokage and would do everything in his power to convince the rest of the council of that. However, with Koharu and Komura dead, she had a better chance of being able to withstand any opposition of the council, even after he was gone.

The thought of his former teammates and late council members made the headache he was trying to will away more intense. He wished that it didn't happen, but if he had to do it again to protect Naruto, then he would have. After all, it was a Hokage's duty to protect the lives and virtues of his people, and if he hadn't killed them he would have felt even guiltier for letting them kill Naruto.

Though it seemed that three months was plenty of time to get plenty of work done, finding Jiraiya or Tsunade would take at least that much time. It would be pure luck to find them before three months passed, but with the bad omen looming over him and Konoha, he wasn't counting on it.

Luckily, there was still the ANBU he had his eye on. The young man had shown outstanding progress, loyalty, power, and intelligence. He was the best ANBU captain in the village, besting Kakashi Hatake and Itachi Uchiha. He was not of a prestigious clan, which made Sandaime all the more interest in him, and he had no clan of his own to teach him the way of the ninja. He had been an orphan since the age of one and with hard work made his way to the top. In addition to that, the man was easily Sannin level of Jiraiya, Orochimaru, and Tsunade's caliber.

That was it, he decided with a nod to himself. If the two Sannin weren't found in two months, then he would go ahead and choose the young ANBU. He could account for taste and not sacrifice any key leadership elements with either three of his choices. The best part was, that nobody but him knew how much potential the ANBU had. And he had never expressed an inkling of a desire to make the man his successor, so it would be a complete surprise to the council and Danzo would not have time to assassinate the man as Sarutobi was sure he was capable of doing.

It would be even better if Jiraiya or Tsunade were found in time because then he could appoint one of them as Hokage and make them choose the ANBU as their successor should anything unfortunate happen. It was perfect. And while he was still living, he would train as many ninja as possible to protect the village and become potential leaders. It was unfortunate that Kakashi Hatake was no longer an option, because he would have been a perfect secondary candidate, but since he had contributed to Naruto's breakdown, knowing who the boy was, he could not be counted on to protect him.

With his plan in mind, Sandaime began his paperwork and waited on the ninja he had sent out to report back to him.

* * *

Kakashi glared at Ibiki from across the mission room. Yesterday, he had seen Sakura and when he went to say hello, the girl went into hysterics about what had taken place during her interrogation a week ago. He was angry at the scarred man for what he did, even though he knew that it was Ibiki's job. He hadn't seen Sasuke, but then again, he never did see the dark-haired boy outside of team meetings, and he wondered how he was faring. He wasn't going to find the Uchiha and ask, but he could request a mission for the three of them.

Which was why he was there.

The only thing that he was apprehensive about what that Iruka Umino was the only Chunin assigned to give missions to the Genin teams. He was not afraid of the man, but he was wary about approaching him after what had happened.

"Hello, Umino-san, I would like to request a D-ranked mission for Team Seven." Iruka looked up from his scrolls and almost growled upon seeing the copy-nin.

"Team Seven? I wasn't aware Team Seven was still a team with just three people. But I guess it's always been that way, huh?" The Chunin sneered, but handed over a scroll anyway. Kakashi sighed. He didn't want Iruka to hate him and wanted a chance to explain himself.

"Iruka, I'd like to speak with you about Naruto over ramen or something. I need you to understand that it was never my intention to hurt him. I was just as blind-sighted by---

Iruka cut him off. "Good, because I would love to hear your excuse. Tomorrow at seven I'll be free," he said and proceeded to ignore Kakashi and went back to looking over mission reports. The Jounin got the hint and left the room, feeling a cold glare from across the room.

Ibiki had been aware of Kakashi's dagger-throwing look from across the room and casually ignored it, feeling rather pleased that he garnered such a reaction. It pleased him even more to know that Kakashi didn't know when he was going to be seeing his Genin again. He was sure the little girl had blabbed a ton about the interrogation; hence the glaring, but the man didn't know when he would strike again.

And of course, he was sure that Kakashi had misjudged his intentions for the kids. He wasn't trying to break them, he was trying to give them humility that they did not posses and Kakashi had not given them. He wanted to make them aware of their selfishness. They were only children, and though Sasuke was more resistant to his methods, the girl could be shaped by him to be nicer and someday come to appreciate Naruto. Sasuke would be tough to bring around, but the boy was not above changing. Because he was an Uchiha, nobody had tried to help him cope with the loss of his family because they figured that he was strong enough to deal with it. As long as he was alive, he was a great ninja, but a lot of people did not see him as more of a human than a weapon. Thus, the Uchiha grew up dealing with his troubles in his own unhealthy way, which included pushing people away.

It wasn't too late. And for Kakashi to see that ignoring a problem would not make it go away was one of his main goals. Ibiki would do what he did best: manipulate people's emotions to get them to bend to his will and his will was making Naruto stable again. It was particularly that he cared for the blonde, but he was not blind to the threat the child's instability posed to Konoha. He was sure Sandaime knew this as well, and his loyalty to the village was necessary to keep it intact.

Getting Sasuke and Sakura to open their eyes wasn't the only thing Ibiki was working on in secret. He was also evaluating and spying on Naruto's doctors and caretakers. Many of them were corrupt and hurt the boy, while the others were threatened or coerced to go along with it. The Hokage would find this news invaluable. Ibiki knew that the old man had sent out some spies to look out for Naruto, but he also knew that Sandaime's best bet was to have him do it. He didn't know what he hadn't been asked, but he was sure that the Hokage knew what he was doing. Inoichi was another loyal shinobi, but with his time being taken up in the decoding and interrogations department, he didn't have time to drop in on the faculty overlooking Naruto's care.

If those ninja kept doing what they were doing, then Danzo wouldn't be necessary to bring Konoha down. In his state, Naruto might eventually come to the conclusion that he would have to kill to save himself, if he wanted to save himself. Or worse, the boy would want revenge on those who wronged him, which consisted of half of the village. He might not be able to help killing everyone in a blind rage.

He needed to be shown that there were people that he could rely on, people that could care for him and see him for him and not the demon inside of him. To do that, Ibiki needed to dedicate everything he had to making sure that such people were available. Sasuke and Sakura were brats, but they were young and did not hate Naruto. They had never bothered to find out what they had in common with the blonde, and never tried to make friends with him because everybody else disliked him. This was because of the adults, their parents. If they was shown that there was nothing to dislike about Naruto, then perhaps that would open their eyes and they would see him as an equal.

If that didn't work, then he didn't know what would. Taking Naruto out of the village was the overall best thing to do, but that definitely wouldn't fly with the council. Then a sudden thought occurred to him. Anko. She and Sasuke and Naruto had something very important in common. Perhaps it wasn't him that should be interrogating them. Perhaps it should be her. Also, Anko and Sakura both had a thing for cold, orphan prodigies (though Anko had outgrown her infatuation with the snake Sannin when he betrayed her and left her to die) and they were both female, so that was even better.

With that in mind, he went off in search of the woman, hoping that his plan might work.

* * *

It seemed like forever had gone by before the numbing drugs they gave him every day had finally worn off and he was taken for his daily psychiatric therapy. It felt good to walk and blink and move his limbs again, even though nothing else had gotten better. When he had woken up that morning, he found that he couldn't for the life of him remember what happened yesterday. He had wracked his brain but came up with nothing. He supposed it was for the best, but he wouldn't have anything to talk about to his psychiatrist. He had just began seeing the therapist two days ago, but already he liked her.

His psychiatrist was a pretty, blue-haired woman who was nice and always gave him snacks and food that the other doctors never gave him. All he was ever fed was soup, bread, water, and pills, and to say the least, it wasn't exactly his idea of a delicious meal. So when the woman had first pulled out a ramen cup from inside of her desk, Naruto was instantly suspicious. Why would she give him anything?

She insisted that he take it and that nothing was wrong with it, so he took it, sniffed it, and, detecting nothing harmful, allowed her to prepare it as he watched her. He had been almost desperate for someone to be nice to him and give him something unconditionally and he had missed his favorite meal so when he ate he savored every last noodle and every drop of broth until the end, when he was warm and somewhat full due to lack of a good nutrition and looking forward to seeing if she was nice about other things.

It turned out that the woman was the nicest person he had encountered in a long time. It was a shame they only met once a day. He had asked the first day they met if she could sneak him ramen for every meal of the day and she told him that she couldn't because she wasn't allowed to see him at any other time. He felt disheartened by this and made sure to look forward to the times they would meet. He also looked forward to his one-on-one meetings with the Hokage. The old man had explained many things to him, some things that he didn't understand, and others that made him upset, but he had started to warm up to the old man, even though he remembered very little about the man's involvement in his life.

He was desperate to trust someone, but this time around he was going to be extra choosy. He still didn't know how he came to having the silver-haired man, the dark-haired boy and the pink-haired girl as teammates like Sarutobi (as he had been requested by the old man to call him) had told him, but from what he understood, they had not intentionally upset his condition. He didn't like them anyway, and didn't know why they didn't like him. All the old man would tell him was that he was different and some people were afraid of things that were different.

He didn't mention Kyuubi and Naruto wondered if the old man thought he didn't remember that and didn't want to take any chances reminding him. Thanks to the various pills he was given throughout the day, gathering chakra was impossible even if he wanted to.

He asked the Hokage why the guards and doctors treated him the way they did and the old man looked surprised. Naruto was right. He didn't know what his own ninja were doing right under his nose. He knew why they hurt him, but he didn't know why they were allowed to do. Unless they weren't. So he worded his question carefully to see if he could trust Sarutobi and the old man's genuine surprise had made him feel somewhat better.

The bad treatment didn't stop, but he didn't expect it to. He was sure that the Hokage couldn't simply take his word for it and probably had the ninja and doctors being carefully watched, because all the Hokage said in response to his question was, "I will remedy that." Every day that they hit him, or made him go without a meal or locked him in a tiny room to suffer through horrible genjutsu, he knew that their malicious activities were going to come to an end soon. At least, he hoped.

He had spent days in living under a cloud of fear, confusion, and rage. He noted, though, that he had a difficult time remembering those days and when he did, he didn't want to think about them. Some days went by where all he did was experience horrible memories, but the meds they were giving him were working to suppress them. After a week, he hadn't experienced more than two lapses in a seven-day period and his thoughts were clearer.

Occasionally, memories of the three people he had found himself walking with would surface and he tried to hang onto those as much as possible, but they always slipped away, like a dream after waking up. He had asked Sarutobi who they were and the old man explained a lot, but Naruto still wished that he could remember what things were like before that day. Sandaime said that he didn't know because he wasn't around the team every day, but he would let him talk to someone who did know. When? Naruto had asked. Soon, the old man replied with a small smile, and the meeting was over.

In another two days he would be meeting with him again, as he would be every Friday for the next three months. He hoped that he would get to see those three people again, because he had a ton of things that he wanted to know, like why they were mean to him, that, the old man couldn't say, and how they felt about him now that he was different.

He also hadn't completely forgotten about Iruka, who Sarutobi had to tell him about again. The memories were hazy, but he couldn't pull up a bad one involving the man, so he made a request to see him again, too. He knew that he was getting his hopes up, but what else could he do? He just wanted to be normal. He didn't want to hurt anymore. He didn't want to be different, but he knew that he always would be. All he needed for people to accept him. One person was not enough, he needed enough people so that he could call it the family he never had.

Sure, he wasn't going to forget all of the people who wronged him and he vaguely remembered some days where all he wanted to do was kill them all and kill himself, but he didn't want that now. Not now, when there was a chance that he could live a normal life.

The doctors hadn't used any of the mind-altering jutsu they had used on him before, allowing him to progress at his own pace. He didn't feel that it was necessary anyway, though he would have liked to forget all that had been done to him. One day, he vowed, he would pay them back. But if he expressed that desire now, then he would get nowhere. He would have to be as stable as possible to carry out his plan, and to do that, he needed to trust himself and be trusted. He needed to get better. He needed to push away all of the pain and memories and focus on getting better so that he could exact his revenge.

He knew that they were afraid he would snap and destroy the village, but no, that was never his intention. Those people that had done the horrible things they had done to him were going to pay, if not with their lives, then he would find another way, but people like that didn't deserve to live. He would not forgive and he would not forget. He would get even. Maybe not this year, or even five years from now, but someday, when he was ready, they would pay.

But that was not important at the moment. He was going to see his therapist, and he couldn't wait to see what she had brought him today.

TBC…

Next up: Naruto's seesion with his therapist, and an update on Sakura and Sasuke and Kakashi's conversation with Iruka. I hope I've pleased you guys. Happy Holidays!


	8. Chapter 8

A/N: Sorry for the long wait, guys! I've been in the land of little internet for a month and I'm glad to be back! I missed you guys! So, here's chapter eight. As usual, I know there are spelling and grammatical errors, but I'm still too lazy and it's still too troublesome to go back a fix. Enjoy! And please, as always, read and review.

* * *

"I can't remember anything. Again." Blandness coated his voice and he shrugged, looking down at the beige-coloured carpet. Even though his therapist was nice, and pretty, he never liked to look at her, afraid that if he did, she would look at him and see what so many other people saw and hate him. If he remained humble and reserved, then he could be somebody else. He wasn't sure exactly how much she knew about him, but it wouldn't do to mess things up and set his plans back.

"That's okay, Naruto. That's fine. Both things are good. If you remember and you stay healthy, then that's good. If you forget and stay healthy, then that's even better. I understand that it's a mix of both, and you seem to be taking it all rather well. There are just a few things I want to ask you. Is that alright? You don't have to answer these questions if you don't want to, but I'd like it if you did."

She smiled at him, though he didn't see and didn't want to see.

"I don't really like questions…" he muttered apprehensively. He was always either asked questions that he couldn't answer, or questions that he didn't want to answer. Being asked if he was feeling better or if he was okay today fit into the former. He never felt much different and if he did, he didn't know how to describe it and he was never okay. Nothing was okay. He had learned early on that lying got him far, but he didn't want to set himself up if she had to ask if it was alright.

"Well, how about I ask first, and you decide if you want to answer them," she went on pleasantly. He nodded mutely and continued staring at the floor, unconsciously digging his abused fingertips into the leather chair beneath him.

"Okay. The first thing I want to ask is how you feel about not remembering some things and not being able to forget others."

Naruto shook his head. He didn't like the question. He didn't know how to answer it. He had never considered how he felt and he wasn't about to consider it now. "What's the other question?"

The woman nodded and jotted something down in her notepad, something that didn't escape Naruto's notice. The very act unsettled him. He wondered what she had written and what she planned to do with the information. What if it was bad? What if she told the old man and they decided that he wasn't getting better and kept him there forever? Paranoia crept into his mind. He wasn't sure if she was worth the benefit of the doubt, but he would wait and see.

"The second question was how you think you would fare in the outside world if you were released today and why." It was a strange question to Naruto. It didn't fit the type of question that he didn't like and he wasn't sure how to answer it. He knew, of course, how he would fare, but if he told her the truth, what would she do?

"Ah….well, don't you think it's a bit soon to be asking me that?" He half expected her to agree or explain why she was asking the question, but she countered his with another of her own.

"Is it?"

Wasn't it? Naruto frowned deeper. These questions were odd. He didn't like either one of them. The woman had some kind of background information on him; she was his psychiatrist after all, so how could she expect for him to answer those questions knowing what she knew about him.

"I've decided not to answer either of your questions." He would have added 'sorry' at the end, but he wasn't. She wrote another thing down in her notepad and nodded with a 'hmmm'.

"Okay, that's fair, it was your choice. Do you want to tell me why you don't want to answer them?"

"Not really." She took more notes.

"Stop that." He said sternly without looking up from her lap where she held the clipboard.

"I have to take notes if I'm going to diagnose and treat your condition." She said sweetly, as if she were taking to a three year old.

"I don't have a condition. There's nothing wrong with me. It's them." And he was beginning to think it was her, too.

"Well, I still have to document our session, Naruto. I'm sorry if you don't like it, but Hokage-sama has asked me to help, and I want to help---

She cut herself off and wrote something down. "But you have to let me."

But he wasn't hearing her. He glared at the notepad as if it had done him unspeakable wrong, watched her flawless, delicate hands grasp the pen and write things. Things that were bad. Things that would keep him there forever.

"What is it that you're writing anyway? Since it's about me, I should know, right?"

She frowned and pursed her lips, moving the clipboard out of his visual range and putting it on the coffee table beside her. His eyes resisted following it. "All I'm doing is taking note of the things you tell me."

"The things I tell you, or the things I say?" This time his eyes narrowed and his fingers dug into the leather harder.

"What's the difference?"

"You say it like I wanted to tell you some things and had to tell you other things." She didn't seem so nice anymore. Now she seemed more superficial, as if she trained herself to appear nice to calm her patients. He had news for her if she thought she could charm him into accepting the horrible fate of spending the rest of his life in that place.

"That's not the way I meant it, Naruto. Not at all. In fact, I'll tell you the real reason I'm taking these notes." So she had lied to him.

"I'm taking them for reference. When you start to get better, we'll know because my notes will tell us so."

Naruto clenched his jaw, but because his head was down she didn't see. "So, you're saying that when I get better, you'll look at those notes as my 'condition' at its worst and compare them to what you feel is my condition at its best?"

The doctor let out a sound of frustrated hesitancy. The boy wasn't supposed to be controlling the session, she was, and if she didn't reign it in soon, then he was going to come to conclusions that he wasn't supposed to come to just yet and defeat the purpose of the therapy.

"Yes. But the goal is t-

"I didn't even do anything. I barely said anything, so how could you have anything to write about? Show me what's on that paper."

She chuckled. "No, Naruto. I already told you, and like I said, if I'm going to help you---

"You're not trying to help me, you bitch!" He growled lowly. His eyes shot up to meet her startled ones. "I know what you're going to do with that information. You want to keep me here! You and that old man are trying to trick me again! You're fucking with me!"

"No! We're not---

"Yes you are!" He stood and quickly leaned forward and made a grab for the clipboard, but she snatched it from his grasp and held it away from him.

"Give the fucking thing to me, damn it!" When she didn't comply, the paranoia grew worse and sickening feeling overcame him. For the first time in days he had a headache and now the woman wasn't nice any more. She wasn't pretty. She was just like them. He tried to be nice, he tried to be cooperative, he tried to make it work, but they only wanted to keep him and torture him for the rest of his life.

His body shifted to autopilot and he lunged for her face, tearing her glasses off and winding a hand tightly into her silky sapphire hair. She screamed and pushed at him and he yanked fiercely causing her to pitch forward. He pushed her head down and raised his fist to beat on her face and back while she cried out and fought against him.

He had no idea where the burst of strength came from. They usually left him alone with the woman after weakening and drugging him and when he found that he could inflict damage, he pounded on her as hard as he could until strong hands grabbed and tugged his arms so hard he could hear one of them crack as he was flung into the steel door, his skull impacting with it so hard that his vision blurred. The brain-jarring blow made his body slowly sink to the floor, unable to move.

There were shouts and the woman was still crying and hands snatched at his hair to drag him out the door and down the hall, back to his cell, he thought fuzzily. Inside his head he was screaming, too, but nothing but whimpers left his mouth. Warm blood trickled down the back of his neck and his arm began to throb as they shook him and slammed him against nearly every wall they passed. He could hear some of the things they were saying but he couldn't talk back. It was like being drugged, expect he could feel the pain and this time they couldn't blame it on an accident. This time they were justified in hurting him.

When he landed on his broken arm on the cold floor of his cell, a grunt of pain escaped him and dark dots swam before his eyes. Before the guards left, one of them issued a kick to his groin that hurt so much his sight and breath left him. In a battle for consciousness, he swallowed and choked, trying to move his good hand to his injured crotch to relieve some of the agony, but the sickness exploded out of his throat and all over the floor and he was immobile, the pain too great.

In another minute the door opened again and someone stepped in. For a moment he was afraid that the person would hurt him, but another moment later he had other things to worry about. All of a sudden the pain he felt floated to the back of his mind and his eyes ceased blinking. For a few seconds he stared straight ahead, though he got the foreboding feeling that something was coming. The doctor kneeled down next to him and inserted something into his mouth and rolled him onto his back. It was the last thing Naruto remembered before his eyes rolled back and he was unconscious.

The doctor in the room simply watched the blonde boy's body start to twitch and convulse and a choking sound as the end of the stethoscope slide sideways against his tongue and began to descend down his throat. He made a particularly loud grunt and a gurgling noise and white fluid gushed from his mouth and his rapidly relaxing and contracting muscles spasmed out of control. His jaw pushed itself out of place trying to compensate for the lack of space to move around the chestpiece and another subtle 'crack' was heard as the bone of his already broken arm split up to his shoulder. He rolled onto his side when a violent contraction went through his vacant form and onto his damaged arm, groaning even though he couldn't feel the pain.

"Hn. That's new." The doctor turned to see one of his newer colleagues with a video camera.

"Yeah." The doctor snickered and toed Naruto's shaking head to the side. "Get a good shot so we can watch it later."

The man with the camera aimed it carefully, making sure to keep a leering grin on his face. "Are you going to take that out of his mouth?"

"Soon, but I want to have some fun. It serves the fucker right for attacking his therapist. Kuomo kicked him where the sun don't shine and we figured we'd just leave him here to wallow in his agony. When he suddenly stopped muttering in pain and his face went blank it was the perfect opportunity to watch the little prick suffer. Hey man, you better make copies of that, I want one."

The other man simply nodded while shooting. "Oh I will," he mumbled distractedly, zooming in on Naruto's now blue face and purple lips. "I will."

* * *

Iruka picked quietly at his ramen while staring at the silver-haired copy-nin sitting next to him. He waited for Kakashi to begin explaining what he came to explain and the other man simply sat there and watched his bowl.

"Today, Hatake. You asked me to come here so that you—

"Right. I'm sorry." Kakashi blinked and looked up, swiveling his chair around to face the Chuunin.

"About…what happened. You have to understand something about me, Iruka. Not a lot of people know this, you'd make five." He stopped and sighed, as if getting ready to tell a winding story.

'_This isn't about you' _Iruka thought to himself, but said nothing.

"Naruto's father and I were really close. He, uh…after my father died, I didn't want anything really to do with him, so I guess what I did was search for someone to fill his place. Minato was so….he was… he was young then, and a lot like you. He was too young to be a father to someone my age, the same age Naruto is now, but he was like one to me. When he died I had lost the last of my team and I was done connecting with people. I knew when Kushina was pregnant with Naruto and I looked forward to meeting him and hopefully being a big brother of sorts to him seeing as they didn't plan on having anymore children. And…I kind of…" He lifted one shoulder slightly and sighed again.

"I mean I guess what happened was I didn't want to care for someone after the war. I didn't want to like anyone; I didn't want to form any bonds with anyone. It felt like the lowest blow when Hokage-sama put Naruto on my Genin team. I had no choice but to accept, but I didn't want to. I had been waiting to meet him for eight months and when I finally did, it wasn't at all the way I had planned it. I wanted to meet him with his father and his mother and sort of….be like…the family I lost. My own mother died in the war and I was just lost. I was the only kid in my class who was a Jounin and I entered the ANBU at such a young age that I didn't have time for friends, and nobody thought they were good enough to befriend me. Everyone was afraid. So I closed myself up and promised never to get close to anyone or make them think they could get close to me. Naruto, I suppose, being an orphan, was almost just like me. He had no family, his peers and the villagers were either afraid of him or they hated him, and he only wanted a family. He found you, but I guess he needed more. I didn't want him to even be on my team, so I shut him out as much as possible, hoping to spare him from becoming like me. Team Seven is eerily like my old team. Sasuke is like me, in a way that's different from Naruto, Sakura has fallen into the same trap of loving a person who could never love her back, and Naruto is just like…"

A shudder went through him at the thought of his former best friend. He didn't like telling people things, but he felt that he owed Iruka at least that. If he had known how far his resolve to push Naruto away would go, he would have done something, anything to stop it. But it was too late. All he could do was explain.

Iruka sat and stared plainly at the Jounin, blinking every so often as he listened. He didn't know what to think about what he had been told so far and he didn't want to interject before Kakashi finished. He could feel some resentment for the man slowly pooling in his gut, but he didn't allow his features to belie the sour feeling down below.

"Obito had a crush on Rin, Rin had a crush on me, and I didn't really like either of them too much. You already know the dynamics of my team as far as relationships go. It's an unwanted reminder of the way things used to be. Without Naruto, Team Seven would be ideal for me. He's too big a reminder of the past, because not only is he like Obito in many ways, he's just like his father in almost every way. I look at him and I want to dislike him, hate him maybe, but I can't. All I could do was push him away. Sasuke never wanted anything outside of the entitlements of a student from his teacher, and Sakura was too preoccupied with Sasuke and detached just enough so that I didn't have to worry about her. But Naruto…oh, he just kept as---

Kakashi bit his lip under his mask and decided that maybe what he was about to say wasn't a very good thing to say to Iruka. Naruto didn't ask to be mistreated and pushed aside. He didn't ask for anything more than attention and someone to give a shit about him. Who was he to say what the boy was asking for?

"Always begging for extra training even though he surpassed both Sakura and Sasuke in enough ways to go at the same pace they were going. It was always more for him. He always needed extra, more, more, more. But I didn't want to give him anything. What for? So the beast inside him could take him and everyone I might care about away? Again? Naruto signifies two things at once. He was--is the carrier of the monster that took my mother, my surrogate father and the only girl that ever liked me for me away and he is the only reminder of those things that I had. The worst part is that he's such a good boy. He's so loyal and so eager to please and so needy I just couldn't indulge all of that. Sasuke and Sakura didn't make it any easier for him, and once in a while I would make them stop teasing him, but after a while he took it to mean that I cared about his feelings and would look to me to make him feel better when those two brought him down. I couldn't do it. The day it happened, I never fathomed that my decision would bring this about. If I had known, I swear I would've changed my mind."

"So it would have been just as simple as changing you mind, would it?" Iruka asked calmly, though anyone with ears could detect the sarcastic malice behind his words.

"No. Not like that. Iruka, I am partly to blame for what happened, and by no means am I proud of my part in this---

"I'm glad you see your fault in this, Kakashi, but what did you think would happen if you ignored Naruto? Don't you know how much he looked up to the Fourth Hokage? Don't you know that he knew that he was your sensei?"

A surprised and fearful look crossed the Jounin's face at this piece of news. He hadn't known that Naruto knew that. "How did he find that out?" he asked, trying to swallow back to cracking of stricken fear in his voice.

"I don't even know." Iruka shook his head as he said it, thinking about how he had been just as surprised to know that Naruto knew such information. Nobody of his generation knew that, only the adults knew. The Hokage didn't take any credit for telling him when Iruka brought it up, fearing that Naruto may learn of other things that he was not yet supposed to know.

The very idea of Naruto knowing that made Kakashi's stomach turn. What if he was more to blame for what happened than he originally thought? "Oh God," he uttered. How in the world had the boy come across that information? How much did he know?

"God isn't here, Kakashi. You have Naruto to answer to. It's gotta be somebody. It's going to be you. You and everybody else in this village that's ever hurt him. I don't care what your motives were. He's a child. You don't push a child away. Especially not when he needs you. Minato didn't push you away. It wasn't fair to Naruto. He may not even know that the man was his father. He may not know that that is why you ignored him. He's not Obito. He's not Minato, and he's not you." The schoolteacher stood, ready to take his leave without having had a bite of his food.

"Iruka, wait," Kakashi took hold of his arm to stop him, but the Chunnin jerked it away.

"You've had your say, Kakashi. How dare you think you can just explain your faults away? Shame on you." He slammed the money for his ramen down on the counter and stormed off before Kakashi could say another word.

The copy-nin just sat there, wide-eyed and he felt like the worst person in the world at that moment. He was ashamed. Iruka was right. He thought that if he told the other man why he treated Naruto the way that he did that Iruka would let up on some of the hate and people would see that hurting the child was never his intention, but of course he couldn't do that.

_What did you think would happen if you ignored Naruto?_

He didn't even know. He hadn't given it one second of thought at all before. How the fuck could he have been so stupid and selfish? It wasn't how Minato or his own father raised him to be. Of course, he just had to have his moment to wallow in his lonely despair, never thinking for an instant that he might share it with someone who didn't deserve it.

"Oh, Naruto…" For the first time since he was eleven, Kakashi could feel the stinging pricks of tears behind his eyes and quickly paid for his uneaten bowl and dismissed himself from the noodle stand.

The owner stared at him as he left, wondering why neither of his latest customers had eaten any of their food.

* * *

"Is Sakura home?" The tall magenta-haired man glanced down at him with the same piercing green eyes Sakura had and then turned,

"Sakura!"

Usually his daughter bounded down the stairs anytime he called her name, always hoping for a friend to come and visit, but no answer came.

"Sakura!" He called again. Again there was no answer.

"Wait here," the man said, his placid look shifting into a frown and a glare at the silent boy. He closed the door and went to find his daughter.

Sasuke waited outside patiently, wondering if he looked at all strange standing in front of the girl's house. He had never gone to anybody's house looking for them before, but he really needed to talk to his teammate. He hadn't seen her in four days and though he hadn't been expecting to see her, she usually showed up at his house on nice days almost every day since they were paired with Naruto as Team Seven. He never wanted to see her and always either pretended he didn't hear her knocking, slammed the door in her face, or ignored her while she prattled on about nothing in his foyer. Now it was him waiting for her and the novelty of such a situation did not escape him.

Suddenly, the door opened again, and instead of Sakura, her father appeared again and didn't look any happier than when he had seen him last.

"What's your name, boy?"

"Sasuke," he replied smoothly.

"Yes. Well, she doesn't want to see or speak to you right now." With that Mr. Haruno turned on his heel and went into the house, slamming the door behind him without so much as an apology for the inconvenience.

Sasuke was a little surprised. How could she not want to see him? She always wanted to see him. It must have something to do with the interrogation, he thought to himself.

He wasn't going to leave without trying to get her to talk to him, so he walked around to the side of the complex she lived in and searched for any window that looked like it might have been hers. All of them were closed. Sakura once told him that on nice days she liked to keep a window open to 'let the day in' and always told him that he should open his windows once in a while and maybe then he wouldn't be so grumpy all the time.

He wasn't sure which window hers was and by the looks of her father, he didn't want to throw a rock at the wrong one, so he silently began scaling the building, looking around to make sure he wasn't being watched and peered into every window he came across until he stopped at one with pink curtains. Sakura's father had pink hair, but he was sure the man wasn't exactly in love with the color so he risked the thought that the window must have been hers and knocked twice.

The response wasn't immediate, but right as he was about to knock again, Sakura came to the window and jerked it open.

"What do you want, Sasuke?" She sounded tired but he noted the red eyes and the puffy bags under them.

"You've been crying," he stated.

She rolled her eyes. "Thanks, Captain Obvious, I hadn't realized."

Sasuke frowned. "What crawled up your ass and died?"

The brash question earned him an incredulous look. "What do you mean, what crawled my ass?! Why are you here?! Some of us actually have a conscious and feel like shit once in a while, so excuse me for being upset that---

"Hokage-sama has requested to see us," was all the dark-haired boy said to her vehement reply. He didn't even so much as bat an eye at her angry tirade, coolly waiting for her to shut up and go with him so that he could go and feel like shit in the privacy of his own home. Not that she needed to know that.

Sakura stared at him in disbelief for a few seconds before her face twisted into disgust. "Y---you….how can you be so---

He started to walk back down the side of the building. "Because crying won't make it better."

The pinkette's face relaxed into slight surprise. She hadn't thought that he had considered the situation enough to give her such a reply. She sniffed and watched him until his feet touched the ground and he looked up at her.

"Now hurry up."

* * *

TBC…..

Oooohhh, boy! Finally, huh? I know I could have gone into plenty more detail, but I still don't know where I'm going with this, so I have to take it step by step. For those of you who don't know what happened to Naruto at the end of his scene, it's called a Tonic Clonic seizure, or a Grand Mal seizure. I'll explain why those come along in the next chapter. Until next time,

Alas!


End file.
